For years, Bhutan has used its unusual currency, happiness and sustainability to measure its economic and social development.
But amid growing economic pain and brain drain, the tiny inland Himalayas is adopting the emblem of new advancements that drive Bhutan globally and Bitcoin to take on financial innovation into a global leadership role.
Surrounded between India and China, Bhutan has become the world’s first carbon denial, but in recent years it has mined millions of dollars in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, making its economic bet that few other countries have.
So why is Bhutan getting bigger with Bitcoin? How do you mine energy-intensive cryptocurrencies? How much wealth does Bitcoin wealth hold? And given the wild price fluctuations that digital currency has witnessed over the years, is that movement dangerous?
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the first decentralized, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency created in 2008. Not controlled by the government.
People can buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and these transactions are recorded in shared ledgers called blockchains. Bitcoin has value. This is because around 21 million Bitcoin can exist on the blockchain. Most of these coins have been mined, leaving around 1 million people there.
Bitcoin mining is the process by which new Bitcoin is officially added to the blockchain. To mine Bitcoin, energy-stimulating supercomputers need to solve complex puzzles. This adds new digital coins to the circulation.
What about Bhutan mining Bitcoin?
Bhutan’s hydropower plants burn fuel to supercomputers that solve complex problems that reward Bitcoin that can be added to the blockchain.
“It’s a simple strategic choice that many people made billions of dollars and made money, and I think the government should do that,” the Bhutan prime minister and prime minister told Bernard Smith of Al Jazeera in March in the capital Thimphu.
Tobgay explained that there will be more water flow during the summer and that hydroelectric plants produce more energy than they need.
“That’s where Bitcoin mining makes a lot of sense,” Tobgay said.
Why is Bhutan facing an economic crisis?
The country is in the midst of increasing economic challenges, and Bitcoin mining is one of a series of steps 800,000 countries are taking to fight to get out of the crisis.
The country does not have an exit to the sea, but it is slightly over 38,000 square kilometers (14,672 square miles), and although it is roughly the same size as Switzerland, most of this land cannot be cultivated due to its mountainous land. Bhutan imports most of the food from India, which Tobgay described as the kingdom’s “close friends and neighbors.”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates Bhutan’s gross domestic product (GDP) is $3.52 billion in 2025. Based on this, tourism contributes approximately 3.4% to the country’s GDP. However, after Covid-19 shook the industry, Bhutan struggled to pull people back and visit mountains, forests and Buddhist shrines.
Bhutan has long controlled the number of tourists held to ensure that its untouched ecology is not affected by a higher scaffolding than it can manage. It charges foreign tourists a $100 sustainable development fee. The only exception to this rule is tourists from India who have to pay $15. Tobgay says the vision behind this is to attract “high-value” tourists.
But now Bhutan is struggling to get that it even has a limited number of tourists it wants. According to Tobgay, the country can host around 300,000 tourists every year.
“I think about 150,000 tourists visited last year,” the prime minister said.
According to the World Bank, youth unemployment rate in Bhutan was 19% in 2024.
How will Bitcoin help Bhutan fight its economic challenges?
One of the most powerful symptoms of the Bhutan crisis is the escape of young educated people to other countries in recent years, and their departures are to exacerbate the country’s economic struggles.
In 2022 alone, more than 10% of Bhutan’s skilled and educated population left the country. Australia, one of its main destination countries, has more than doubled the immigrant population in Bhutan in the five years from 2016 to 2021.
“We work in Bhutan, but we can’t compete with wages that we can earn anywhere else in the developed world,” Tobgay said.
This brain drain also depleted Bhutan civil servants. There has been a significant increase in civil servants who have resigned from systems services since 2019, and the number of civil servants continues to increase until 2023, state-funded Bhutan Broadcasting Services (BBS) reported in April 2024.
This is where Bitcoin appears to have served as an economic resource. In 2023, the Bhutan government sold $100 million in cryptocurrency to double civil servants’ salaries, Smith of Al Jazeera reported from Thimphu.
Since then, the BBS has reported a slight decline in civil servants leaving their jobs. In the first quarter of 2024, nearly 1,900 civil servants who resigned in 2023 during the same period resigned.
How much Bitcoin does Bhutan hold?
Bhutan has not officially disclosed how much it will be held in cryptocurrency.
However, according to blockchain intelligence company Arkham, Bhutan’s Bitcoin Holdings, was worth more than $600 million as of April 9, accounting for around 30% of the kingdom’s GDP.
Arkham data suggests that Bhutan also holds other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and Linkai. The holdings of these currencies are much smaller than those of Bitcoin.
The King of Bhutan, Zigme Kisar Namgil Wanchak, has long advocated for the country to invest in digital infrastructure.
“Being a small country makes us a clever country. This is not unselected, it becomes inevitable,” the king said in his 2019 speech. “Technology is the essential tool needed to realize this aspiration.”
Is Bitcoin mining in Bhutan sustainable?
Bitcoin mining is one of the few ventures that allows Bhutan, a constitutional monarchy, to grow its economy to match its national values, analysts say.
“The number of investments in the private sector flowing to Bhutan is very limited due to restrictions accompanied by Bhutan’s mission to maintain around 60% of forest cover and focus on environmental well-being and environmental protection,” Aditya Goudara Shivamsi, a fellow Ober Research based in the new Delhi, told AL Jazeera (orf).
This restriction is also what Prime Minister Tobgay said.
“We have been very careful about foreign direct investments,” Tobgay said. “We have been aware of allowing industries that are harmful to the environment, pollute our air and undermine our culture.”
What Bhutan has is the environment and natural resources that encourage cryptocurrency mining, said ORF Shivamurthy.
The capital, Thimphu and other regions are cold, reducing the need to overuse the cooling system needed to prevent supercomputers from overheating. According to World Bank data, average domestic temperatures remain between about 15-30 degrees Celsius (59-86 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the year.
The country also produces more hydroelectric power than it consumes.
“It is important for Bhutan to utilize the green energy we have in terms of mining Bitcoin as part of its investment portfolio,” Ujwal Deep Dahal, CEO of Druk Holding and Investments, the commercial and investment arm of the Royal Government of Bhutan, told Al Jazeera.
Bhutan exports hydroelectric power to India. However, Bitcoin mining gives Bhutan an alternative to exports. If the tariff rate is good, it sells power to India. In projects where the fees are not good, Bhutan will maintain its power and use it to mine Bitcoin instead, explained ORF Shivamoothy.
“Instead of exporting” [hydropower] At a very low rate, we use it to mine Bitcoin in Bhutan’s alpine mountains,” Tenzinggramsan, editor-in-chief of the Bhutan Newspaper, a private weekly based in Thimphu, told Al Jazeera.
In addition to mining Bitcoin, the country is building a special administrative area and Jereh Mindfulness City to combine sustainability and welfare ideals with commercial growth. The city is an urban development project with low-rise buildings, sustainable business, residential areas, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
Are other governments mining bitcoin?
The government was wary of early Bitcoin, but many are now changing their approach.
On March 6th, President Donald Trump established a strategic Bitcoin Reserve. In addition to the US, El Salvador owns 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 fiat currency.
On April 7, Pakistan appointed Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, as an advisor to the regulatory body established in March, as an advisor to the Pakistan Cryptocourse Council (PCC), which was established in March, as an advisor to the regulatory body established in March to seek to establish itself as a crypto leader in South Asia.
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