- Bhutan is allocating 10,000 Bitcoin valued at $875 million to fund the Gelephu Mindfulness City development project.
- The special administrative region spans 1,544 square miles, targeting finance, tech, and green energy sectors.
The Himalayan kingdom is set to use a big part of its crypto assets to establish a one-of-a-kind economic hub in southern Bhutan. The Kingdom of Bhutan plans to utilise a significant portion of its national cryptocurrency assets, specifically 10,000 Bitcoins, for the development of Gelephu Mindfulness City, a new administrative region serving as an innovative economic hub.
Such a redirection of funds to the digital asset is almost 88% of the total estimated 11,286 Bitcoins that the country is believed to possess, and at the moment, this figure is equivalent to approximately $875 million based on the latest market prices.
Building an Economic Gateway
The Gelephu Mindfulness City project, aiming to make the southern town of Gelephu a commercial hotspot, was launched in 2024 with ambitious goals. The project, which is about 1,544 square miles in extent, is roughly one-tenth of the total land area of Bhutan. It aims to open the door to the high-value job market for the youth of the country.
The program is a big “yes” to the problem of the youth going abroad for better opportunities by creating a fascinating economic environment that spreads over the different industries like finance, tourism, green energy, technology, healthcare, and agricultural sectors.
The special administrative region is designed to give crypto and fintech companies regulatory benefits while enabling the extension of Bhutan’s current Bitcoin mining operations with the provision of infrastructure all over the region.
Bhutan keeps a focus on prudent financial management via risk-adjusted yield strategies, treasury operations, and long-term holding plans that are specifically aimed at sustaining the value of the cryptocurrency over time.
It is also emphasized that the management, control and openness will be the main features of the decision-making process concerning the use of the Bitcoin allocation, which will be at the top of the list not only as a capital preservation measure but also as a way of funding sustainable development initiatives throughout the next decades.
According to the king, the project will be the source of shared prosperity for the 796,682 Bhutanese people, thus making the model of communal wealth where farmers become shareholders in the success.
The masterplan features phased building over two decades, and it is already in progress to prepare sites and set up the required legal frameworks for the autonomous region. The city has implemented cryptocurrency payment systems for merchants and tourism services, in addition to TER, a gold-backed sovereign digital token for local transactions and commerce.
Being a corridor that links South Asia with Southeast Asia, the Gelephu Mindfulness City is Bhutan’s daring move that utilizes digital assets as a major lever for the country’s economic transformation.
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