For years, Bhutan has measured its economic and social development by using rare currencies: happiness and sustainability.
But in the midst of growing economic pains and a brain flight, the small Himalayan kingdom without coast adopts a new emblem of progress, which propels Bhutan into a leading role, worldwide, in the adoption of financial innovation: Bitcoin.
Nestled between India and China, Bhutan – also the first country in the world to become a carbon negative – has undermined millions of dollars in the most popular cryptocurrency in the world in recent years, which has made an economic bet that no other country has, to the same extent.
So why is Bhutan big on Bitcoin? How does he use cryptocurrency with high energy intensity? What is the Bitcoin wealth the country holds? And is its decision risky, given the wild price fluctuations that digital currency has witnessed over the years?
What is Bitcoin and how do you exploit it?
Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency and Peer-to-Peer, created in 2008. It is not controlled by any government.
People can buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and these transactions are recorded on a large shared book called Blockchain. Bitcoin has value because there is a finite number of bitcoins that can exist on the blockchain, around 21 million. Most of these parts have been extracted and about a million people remain.
Bitcoin exploitation is the process by which new bitcoins are officially added to the blockchain. To exploit Bitcoin, a greedy of energy degree of energy must resolve a complex puzzle. This adds a new digital part in circulation.
How is Bhoutan Mining Bitcoin?
Bhutan hydroelectric power plants have fuel supervisors that solve complex problems to be rewarded with Bitcoin, which can be added to the blockchain.
“It is just a simple strategic choice that many people have made and won billions of dollars, and I think that governments should do so,” Prime Minister Bhoutanais Tshering Tobgay told Bernard Smith of Al Jazeera in the capital, Thimphu, in March.
Tobgay explained that during the summer months there are more water flow and that hydroelectric power plants generate more energy than necessary.
“This is where bitcoin extraction is enormous,” said Tobgay.
Why is Bhutan faced with an economic crisis?
The country is increasing economic challenges, and the extraction of Bitcoin is part of a set of measures that the nation of 800,000 people takes to make its way out of the crisis.
The country has no outlet in the sea, and although – at just over 38,000 km2 (14,672 square miles) – it is almost as large as Switzerland, most of this land is not arable because of its mountainous land. Bhutan imports most of its food from India, which Tobgay described as the “closest friend and neighbor” in the kingdom.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Bhutan’s gross domestic product (GDP) is $ 3.52 billion in 2025. Depending on this, tourism contributes to around 3.4% to the country’s GDP. However, after Covid-19 rocked the industry, Bhutan had trouble bringing people back to visit its mountains, forests and Buddhist sanctuaries.
Bhutan has long controlled the number of tourists it hosts to ensure that its virgin ecology is not affected by a higher frequency than it can manage. It charges sustainable development costs of $ 100 to foreign tourists. The only exception to this rule is tourists from India, who have to pay $ 15. Tobgay says that the vision behind this is to attract tourists “of great value and at low volume”.
But now, Bhutan is struggling to even obtain the limited number of tourists he wants. According to Tobgay, the country can accommodate around 300,000 tourists each year.
“Last year, I think that around 150,000 tourists visited,” said Prime Minister.
Bhoutan’s unemployment rate was 19% in 2024. The world’s average unemployment rate in 2023 was 13.6%, according to the World Bank.
How could Bitcoin help Bhoutan fight against its economic challenges?
One of the most powerful symptoms of the Bhutan crisis is the exodus of young people and people educated to other countries in recent years – and their departure is only aggravating the country’s economic struggle.
In 2022 only, more than 10% of the qualified and educated population of Bhutan has left the country. Australia, one of the main destination countries, has seen its Bhoutani immigrant population more than double in five years between 2016 and 2021.
“We have jobs in Bhutan, but they cannot compete with the wages they can win elsewhere in developed countries,” said Tobgay.
This brain flight also exhausted the civil services of Bhutan. There has been a sharp increase in civil servants who have left the system services since 2019, the number of civil servants who are leaving the continuation of increasing until 2023, reported Bhoutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) funded by the State in April 2024.
This is where Bitcoin, as an economic resource, seems to have helped: in 2023, the Bhutanese government sold $ 100 million in cryptocurrency to double the salaries of civil servants, Smith d’Al Jazeera reported in Thimpu.
Since then, the BBS has reported a marginal drop in civil servants who have left their job. In the first quarter of 2024, 500 civil servants resigned, against nearly 1,900 who resigned during the same period in 2023.
How many Bitcoin does Bhutan hold?
Bhutan has not officially revealed how it holds in the cryptocurrency.
However, according to the Arkham Blockchain Intelligence Company, Bhoutan’s Bitcoin Holdings is worth more than $ 600 million From April 9, representing around 30% of the Kingdom’s GDP.
Arkham’s data suggest that Bhutan also has other cryptocurrencies, notably Ethereum and Linqai. Although the assets of the kingdom of these currencies are much smaller than those of Bitcoin.
The king of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, has long pleaded for the country to invest in its digital infrastructure.
“Being a little nation makes us an intelligent nation – it is not by choice but out of necessity,” said the king in a 2019 address. “Technology is an essential tool that will be necessary to achieve this aspiration.”
Is Bhoutan’s Bitcoin Mining sustainable?
Bitcoin Mining is one of the few companies that allows Bhutan, a constitutional monarchy, to develop its economy while aligning with its values as a country, according to analysts.
“The number of investments in the private sector which take place in Bhutan are quite limited due to the restrictions that accompany Bhoutan’s mandate to maintain around 60% of forest coverage and to focus on happiness and environmental conservation rather than quickly embracing industrialization,” said Alazea Aditya Gowdara Shivamury, told the ALM associated.
This limitation is also something that Prime Minister Tobgay has spoken.
“We were aware of paying very attention to foreign direct investments,” said Tobgay. “We have been careful to allow industries that would harm the environment, which would pollute our air, which would undermine our culture.”
What Bhutan has is an environment and natural resources conducive to the extraction of cryptocurrency, said the orf shivamurthy.
The capital, Thimphu and other regions have cold temperatures, reducing the need to use too much the cooling systems necessary to prevent superordinators from overheating. The country’s average temperatures remain between 15 and 30 degrees Celsius (59-86 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the year, according to the World Bank data.
The country also produces more hydroelectricity than it consumes.
“It is important for Bhutan to capitalize on green energy that we have in terms of operating operating Bitcoin in the context of our investment portfolio,” Al Jazeera Ujwal Deep Dahal, CEO of Druk Holding and Investments, the Bhutan’s commercial and investment branch, in Al Jazeera Druk Holding and Investment CEO.
Bhutan exports hydroelectricity to India. But bitcoin extraction gives Bhutan an alternative to exports. Where the rate rates are good, it sells power to India. In projects where prices are not good, Bhutan keeps power and uses it to exploit Bitcoin instead, said Shivamurthy de l’Orf.
“Instead of exporting (hydroelectricity) at a very cheap pace, we use it to exploit bitcoins in the high mountains of Bhutan,” said Tenzing Lamsang, editor -in -chief of the Bhoutanese newspaper, a private week based in Thimpu, Al Jazeera.
In addition to the exploitation of Bitcoin, the country builds a special administrative region and an economic center, the Gelephu Mindfulness City, to combine its ideals of sustainability and well-being with commercial growth. The city is an urban development project with low -height buildings, sustainable companies, residential areas, a national park and a wildlife sanctuary.
Do other governments exploit Bitcoin?
While governments were wary of Bitcoin when it started, many are now changing their approach.
On March 6, US President Donald Trump created a Bitcoin strategic reserve. In addition to the United States, El Salvador holds nearly $ 550 million in Bitcoin, the government announced on March 5.
Other governments, such as the Central African Republic and France, are beginning to recognize Bitcoin as a legal call for tenders.
On April 7, Pakistan appointed Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, who is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, as an advisor to Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC), a regulatory organization set up in March, while the country tries to position itself as crypto chief in South Asia.
