According to a new report from Arkham Intelligence, Bhutan has a lot more Bitcoin than El Salvador. The numbers show that Bhutan’s business company, Druk Holdings, has more than 13,000 BTC, which is more than twice as much as El Salvador has.
The information, which came out on September 16, connects 13,029 BTC, which are worth about $758 million, to Bhutan’s mining activities. Arkham checked this information by using on-chain analytics and aerial images of the mining site, which used to be called the Education City project.
Bhutan has a lot of Bitcoin, which is worth about a quarter of its expected $3 billion GDP in 2024. In April 2019, the country started mining Bitcoin to make money when the price of Bitcoin was around $5,000. Recently, in May 2023, Druk Holdings teamed up with Bitdeer to move carbon-neutral mining operations forward. They also said they were going to increase their mining power to 600 megawatts by the middle of 2025.
In contrast, El Salvador, which made Bitcoin official as money in September 2021, has 5,875 BTC worth $331 million. This number is amazing, but it’s still less than half of what Bhutan owns. The average cost of buying Bitcoin in El Salvador is a lot higher than in Bhutan. As a result, they have made less money than Bhutanese early investors.
For mining, both Bhutan and El Salvador use clean energy sources. Bhutan uses water power, and El Salvador uses geothermal volcanic energy. El Salvador, on the other hand, is more open about its plan to collect Bitcoin, while Bhutan is more private.
