Bhutan is a small, landlocked country located in the Himalayas in South Asia. It shares borders with China to the north and India to the south, east, and west.
Known for its unique approach to development and its focus on Gross National Happiness (GNH) rather than economic growth, Bhutan offers a fascinating blend of traditional culture and modern progress.
Bhutan's currency is the ngultrum, whose value is fixed to the Indian rupee, and that everything is relatively small. In fact, the country is largely dependent on agriculture, hydropower, and tourism.
But that doesn't mean it doesn't follow the hype many parts of the world follow.
In this case, Bhutan, which is a constitutional monarchy with a king as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of government, is one of those countries that have reserves in the form of cryptocurrency.

Bhutan, a country with less than one million people.
According to the data from analytics account @lookonchain, this developing country has embraced Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies for building a strategic reserves.
Here, Bhutan has acquired a whopping 633 Bitcoins valued at $64.57 million, adding to its existing reserve, putting it at an astonishing 11,055 BTC, which worth more than one billion dollars.
What this means, the Thunder Dragon Kingdom became one of a handful of countries to hold over US$1 billion worth of Bitcoin.
The transaction was split as those Bitcoins were sent to three new blockchain wallets.
Royal Government of #Bhutan transferred 633 $BTC($64.57M) to 3 new wallets in the past hours.
Royal Government of #Bhutan currently holds 11,055 $BTC($1.13B).https://t.co/hiNf1ySQhU pic.twitter.com/A4t3TAXyrH— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) January 17, 2025
The cryptocurrency community met this tweet with a wave of enthusiasm mixed with puzzlement, guessing at the nature of this transaction.
Many of them were surprised since the country only has a GDP of around $2 billion, and an income per capita of around $3,500.
Bhutan's foray into the cryptocurrency world began back in 2019, when the government began mining Bitcoin using its renewable hydropower.
The CEO of Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), Ujjwal Deep Dahal, stated, "We hold assets in the form of Bitcoin and we started mining those assets in 2019 with our green hydropower."
Then, the government announced its plan to increase its Bitcoin mining capacity to 600 megawatts by 2025, in partnership with Bitdeer, a leading Nasdaq-listed technology company.
Not only that, because the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) project has incorporated Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin into its strategic reserves, expanding Bhutan's digital assets ecosystem.
These initiatives position Bhutan as a notable player in the cryptocurrency landscape, integrating digital assets into its economic framework while utilizing sustainable energy resources.

It's worth noting that back in December 2024, Bhutan transferred 502 Bitcoin, approximately $49.42 million, to platforms including Binance and QCP Capital.
According to a World Bank report, The Himalayan nation has invested $539 million in cryptocurrency mining operations over the last two fiscal years, from July 2021 to June 2023.
Read: Bhutan Found Secretly Investing In Cryptocurrencies By Harnessing Its Abundant Hydropower