Which nation states hold bitcoin?

More than you’d perhaps think! It’s estimated that governments now hold 2.2% of all bitcoin in existence.

• 🇺🇲The USA is the biggest holder of BTC with a total known holding of around $12.5billion. This is from seizures like the Bitfinex hack recovery, Silk Road confiscation, and smaller federal investigations. Arkham’s intelligence shows the top exchanges that the government holds the funds with: https://platform.arkhamintelligence.com/explorer/entity/usg and you can see an example of smaller seizures cases here where the US Marshall’s office is selling the bitcoin: https://www.usmarshals.gov/what-we-do/asset-forfeiture/sale-approximately-404158424932-bitcoin
• 🇨🇳China have an estimated 190,000 BTC (worth approx $11.3billion) and whilst transactions using crypto are largely banned in the country, they got this bumper bitcoin holding after the PlusToken ponzi scheme was dismantled.
• 🇬🇧The UK government’s bitcoin holdings are mainly attributed to an almost $3billion seizure after an ex-takeaway worker was convicted of money laundering. Arkham reports that they currently hold $3.6billion worth of bitcoin.
• 🇺🇦After being invaded by Russia in 2022, crypto donations poured in for the brave nation to help buy munitions and war-supplies. Hundreds of millions of $ was raised from individuals and organisations across the globe. $75m of this was donated by Finland’s government after it sold off seized bitcoin from various criminal investigations. Many government officials in Ukraine have previously declared crypto ownership (about $2.6billion worth in 2021).
• 🇧🇹Recently it was announced that the Kingdom of Bhutan has $780m worth of BTC (13,011 BTC). They have obtained this not via seizures, like many governments but by mining. (Where is Bhutan I hear you ask? It’s squidged between Tibet, Nepal, Bangladesh and India)
• 🇷🇺In 2023 Russia mined 54,000 BTC (worth $3billion) with an expected tax windfall of $556m for the Russian government. This follows the upcoming Nov 2024 bill implementation which which legalised bitcoin mining in the country, and many expect this will be a tactic that the country uses to skirt sanctions that continue to be applied to the country following their invasion of Ukraine.
• 🇸🇻When I visited El Salvador back in 2022 I paid for my dinner at Bitcoin Beach in bitcoin and it was amazing to see ‘pay with bitcoin’ on merchants and find bitcoin ATMs in corner shops. The country was the first to add bitcoin as legal tender and whilst it’s fair to criticise the overall uptake and success of this project, it’s definitely been a tourism boost for the country. The government has been actively buying up bitcoin with their “1 bitcoin a day” program and they now have 5,748.8BTC worth $342m.
• 🇫🇮Even after the donation to Ukraine, Finland’s government is thought to still hold 90 BTC, valued at $5.7million.
• 🇩🇪The German government was thought to have around 46,000 BTC (valued at c$3billion) from seizures such as a 2013 piracy website however this was all sold back in July 2024.
• 🇻🇪Due to rampant inflation, citizens in Venezuela often use crypto for remittance and as a store of value for their funds. A recent proposal from the government aims to include bitcoin in the country’s national reserve. Time will tell whether this is adopted but this could be another country to add to the list and here’s hoping it works out better than the failed Petro — their oil backed stable coin.
• 🇬🇪🇧🇬Georgia is also rumoured to have 66 BTC however there’s no original online source that supports this claim. Bulgaria’s government seized 200,000 BTC from organised criminal gangs back in 2017 however it’s unclear if the government has hodl’d or already sold.