Bhutan has emerged as a major Bitcoin holder, surpassing El Salvador in terms of cryptocurrency holdings, according to Arkham

Arkham Intelligence reported that the Kingdom of Bhutan has quietly become one of the world’s larger sovereign Bitcoin holders, with on‑chain analysis indicating that government‑linked wallets control more BTC than El Salvador’s public treasury balance. Arkham’s research attributes just over 13,000 BTC to the Royal Government of Bhutan as of its initial disclosure, making Bhutan one of the top four state‑level holders globally, behind only the United States, China and the United Kingdom. By comparison, El Salvador has publicly disclosed holdings in the low thousands of BTC, meaning Bhutan’s on‑chain balance, if correctly attributed, exceeds that of the country most associated with a formal “Bitcoin nation‑state” strategy. According to Arkham, Bhutan’s stack was accumulated primarily through state‑backed Bitcoin mining operations started around 2019 and funded via the government’s investment arm, Druk Holding & Investments (DHI), rather than from law‑enforcement seizures that dominate other governments’ BTC treasuries. Subsequent Arkham updates have tracked sizeable transfers from Bhutan‑linked wallets to exchanges and trading firms, suggesting significant sales in recent years and sparking debate after DHI’s CEO said he did not recall selling BTC even as tagged wallet balances fell sharply. The episode highlights both the scale and unconventional nature of Bhutan’s mining‑driven Bitcoin strategy, and how third‑party on‑chain forensics can reveal sovereign crypto positions that are not formally disclosed, reshaping perceptions of which states are most exposed to Bitcoin.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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