Crypto intelligence firm Arkham highlighted the Kingdom of Bhutan’s bitcoin holdings on social media platform X this week. Bhutan is a small, landlocked kingdom located in the eastern Himalayas, bordered by China to the north and India to the south. The country currently has a population of less than 800,000 people.

Arkham has been tracking Bhutan’s onchain bitcoin transactions, with the government currently holding over $828 million in BTC. The crypto intelligence firm detailed:

These holdings come from bitcoin mining operations carried out by the Kingdom of Bhutan’s investment arm, Druk Holdings.

Arkham’s onchain data on the government of Bhutan’s bitcoin holdings. Source: Arkham Intelligence.

“Bhutan has constructed bitcoin mining facilities in multiple locations, with the largest being on the site of the now-defunct Education City project,” Arkham further shared.

The crypto intelligence firm explained that it was able to confirm this activity by reviewing satellite imagery and matching it with the timeline of onchain mining operations. “We were able to corroborate the timeline of on-chain mining activity with time-lapse satellite imagery of facility construction,” Arkham described, noting:

Unlike most governments, Bhutan’s BTC does not come from law enforcement asset seizures, but from bitcoin mining operations, which have ramped up dramatically since early 2023.