Kingdom of Bhutan deposits $66m in Bitcoin on Binance

As a seasoned crypto investor with over two decades of experience under my belt, I find Bhutan’s strategic move to centralize its Bitcoin holdings intriguing. Given my own journey that started during the early days of Napster and Peer-to-Peer file sharing, it’s fascinating to see a nation like Bhutan leveraging technology to bolster its financial reserves.


For the initial occasion since July, the Kingdom of Bhutan transferred Bitcoin to a centralized cryptocurrency trading platform.

The information from Arkham reveals that on October 29th, the government of Bhutan moved approximately 929 Bitcoins (equivalent to over $66 million) to a Binance deposit account, thereby decreasing its substantial cryptocurrency reserves. Initially, they transferred 100 BTC ($7.3 million), which seemed like a trial run. Later, they sent another 839 BTC ($59 million) in a subsequent transaction.

In September, it was discovered that Arkham had been monitoring Bhutan’s cryptocurrency assets, unveiling that this tiny Asian country owned approximately $1 billion worth of Bitcoin.

Based on reports from crypto.news, Bhutan has significantly increased its Bitcoin mining activities since 2023, amassing approximately $750 million worth of Bitcoin within a year. The investment department of Bhutan, Druk Holding & Investment, oversees these Bitcoin reserves, making Bhutan one of the top five countries globally with the largest sovereign-managed Bitcoin holdings.

In the last hour, the Royal Government of Bhutan transferred approximately 66.16 million USD worth of Bitcoin (929 BTC) to Binance, increasing their total Bitcoin holdings to around 886.58 million USD (12,456 BTC).

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 29, 2024

Among nations, the U.S., boasting 203,239 Bitcoins, China with 190,000 Bitcoins, the United Kingdom sporting 61,245 Bitcoins, and Ukraine holding a significant amount of around 61,245 Bitcoins are the only governments that possess Bitcoin reserves larger than Bhutan’s.

Bhutan’s method of amassing Bitcoin is distinct. In contrast to nations such as the United States and China, who accumulated most of their cryptocurrency reserves via confiscations, Bhutan mined its own crypto by utilizing computational power, re-purposing a previously educational project for this purpose.

Despite sending some Bitcoin to Binance, Bhutan continues to possess approximately 12,456 BTC, now valued at more than $885 million due to the current bullish crypto market trend. In fact, Bitcoin has just surpassed $71,000, and financial experts predict it might challenge its previous record high of over $73,000 set in March.

In addition to that, Bhutan is believed to have roughly $600,000 worth of Ethereum (ETH), and it also possesses lesser quantities of various other digital currencies.

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2024-10-29 17:30