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Bhutan's Gelephu Mindfulness City plans to allocate digital assets such as BTC, ETH, and BNB to its strategic reserves.
Bhutan has already made large investments in Bitcoin through its hydroelectric mining operations.
On January 8, 2025, the newly established special administrative region of the Kingdom of Bhutan, Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), announced plans to include digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB) in its strategic reserves.
Once the plan is implemented, the special administrative region will become one of the first jurisdictions to officially include cryptocurrency as part of its strategic reserves. According to a statement released on Wednesday, the move is aimed at strengthening the economic resilience of the special administrative region while expanding its existing bitcoin mining activities. Bhutan is currently investing heavily in the field by utilizing hydropower resources for bitcoin mining.
Digital assets help economic development
Kaleb Mindful City is an ambitious sustainable urban development and economic innovation project conceived by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in southern Bhutan. The city, which covers more than 2,500 square kilometers and borders the India-Bhutan border, claims to be uniquely positioned to serve the region’s more than 2 billion people and is focused on promoting and supporting blockchain technology.
In addition to BTC, ETH and BNB, the Special Administrative Region did not specifically mention other cryptocurrencies, but said that its goal is to recognize digital assets with large market capitalization and deep liquidity to ensure that these assets can be easily bought and sold with minimal price fluctuations. At the same time, the Special Administrative Region said that it will focus on considering digital assets issued based on more mature and secure blockchain technology to support the monitoring of on-chain transactions.
The announcement of the strategic reserve plan follows the enactment of the Application of Laws Act 2024 on December 26, 2024. “The Act establishes the legal and regulatory framework for companies within the GMC to provide financial services related to digital assets. The enactment of this law, coupled with the inclusion of digital assets such as BTC, ETH and BNB in the strategic reserve, is intended to promote the growth of the GMC digital asset ecosystem and create a technologically advanced and well-regulated environment,” GMC officials said.
In March this year, the Mindful City of Gleb will host a high-level meeting, inviting senior government officials and industry leaders from around the world to discuss issues related to incorporating digital assets into strategic reserves.
The world's fifth largest holder of Bitcoin
Bhutan is currently the fifth largest known national Bitcoin holder in the world, with 12,211 Bitcoins (worth about $1.2 billion) behind only the United States (208,109), China (190,000), the United Kingdom (61,245) and Ukraine (46,351), according to Bitcoin Treasuries.
However, unlike many countries that obtain Bitcoin through criminal seizure, Bhutan is a unique player in this field by using its abundant national hydropower resources to conduct environmentally friendly Bitcoin mining.
The plan by Gleb Mindfulness City has also sparked speculation that other countries may have begun accumulating bitcoin to get ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to establish a national bitcoin reserve.
