Tiny Asian nation already owns more Bitcoin than El Salvador

Emigration (the departure of many of its own residents to a neighboring country) and a large amount of available green energy catapulted one very small Asian country (with less than a million inhabitants) to fourth (or fifth) place among Bitcoin owners in the country rankings. Bhutan, the small mountain state between China and India, now owns about $800 million worth of Bitcoins, or some $1,000 worth of Bitcoin per inhabitant. That’s not all, because the government of Bhutan also bought Ethereum, BNB coin and Polygon, for just under $100 million.

Mystery

For years, the government of Bhutan did everything it could to keep their vast crypto wealth secret. Of course, a country with an annual GDP of $3 billion that now owns $900 million in crypto is quite exceptional.

The latest ranking published by Arkham Intelligence last month informed the rest of the world that there is a new major crypto player on the market. The United States is of course still in first place in the country rankings of Bitcoin whales, followed by China and the United Kingdom. Ukraine also owns quite a few Bitcoins (although their ranking is disputed by some).

But while El Salvador (where the government of President Nayib Bukele has been purchasing Bitcoins for years) used to be in fifth place, this year it has been overtaken by Bhutan, a tiny nation state of less than a million inhabitants.

How did Bhutan become one of the largest owners of Bitcoin amongst countries?

Despite having a population of less than one million people, Bhutan has built one of the most successful government led Bitcoin mining operations ever.$BTC pic.twitter.com/UJVPKPGGGH

— The New Money (@thenewmoney_tnm) October 7, 2024

Earlier this year, Germany sold their Bitcoins that they had seized from an illegal website and with that the Germans fell out of the top 10.

How did they do it?

The question of course is, how did Bhutan do it? Well, first of all, there was the departure of a lot of residents to the neighboring countries of China and India to find work there, where salaries are often better. This left a lot of buildings belonging to the government empty, especially schools.

Secondly, thanks to its location, Bhutan has a lot of hydro energy available. A large part of this is sold to India, while the remaining part is given cheaply to the population. But as that population shrank, there was plenty of spare energy.

So what do you do when you have a lot of energy, empty school buildings and a big neighbor (China) that suddenly bans Bitcoin mining companies in 2021?

Well, in Bhutan’s case you buy a whole bunch of Bitcoin mining equipment from China, put it in those empty buildings and use the energy to do Bitcoin mining.

During the crypto winter of 2022 that followed, it looked like a stupid move by Bhutan, but with Bitcoin trading at $60,000 per coin in 2024, it appears to have been a genius move after all.