Bhutan’s government begins staking Ethereum

The government of Bhutan had been active in the Bitcoin mining sector for years. Now Ethereum is also being added. New data from the blockchain shows that the Royal Government of Bhutan has as many as 320 Ethers, worth about $970,000, in staking contracts.

Bhutan uses Ethereum

This is not Bhutan’s first activity with Ethereum. It previously moved its digital identity system from Polygon to Ethereum. It allows residents of the country to verify their identity and access government services on the network.

It will be interesting to see whether Bhutan will now purchase more Ethereum. Before this, the country was mainly focused on Bitcoin in terms of reserves. They may therefore also see future prospects in keeping Ethers in the country’s cash reserves. In principle, Bhutan is now the first country ever to choose this.

Bhutan has been into crypto for a long time

Bhutan’s crypto adventure started in 2019. At the time, the country saw an opportunity to use its surplus energy resources to mine Bitcoin. As a result, it now has 6,154 BTC, which has a value of more than 500 million dollars.

In July this year, Bhutan announced that it wanted to boost tourism in the country by facilitating crypto payments across the country. 1,000 retailers are now said to be participating in the system. The aim is to reduce friction when making payments by tourists.

The supply of over $500 million in Bitcoin may not seem impressive, but when you compare it to the gross domestic product (GDP) of $3.02 billion (2023), it is.

In the same proportions, the Netherlands would have 166 billion dollars in Bitcoin. The digital currency therefore plays a very important role in Bhutan’s reserves. It certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing for Bitcoin if more countries followed Bhutan’s example.