Key takeaways:
Nine governments collectively own $32.3 billion in Bitcoin, which accounts for 2.5% of its total supply. While this may indicate a growing interest in the cryptocurrency sector at the national level, governments are far from investing in Bitcoin. Most of the Bitcoin held by governments like the U.S., China, and the United Kingdom has been confiscated from illegal activities. The recent German sell-off shows that governments could affect Bitcoin markets in a big way. There is also concern about governments colluding to crash Bitcoin markets.Germany completed the sale of its 50,000 Bitcoin (BTC) holdings on July 12, valued at about $3 billion, according to data analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. The German government began the sale through major exchanges at the end of June, which caused the price of BTC to drop by 15%. However, nearly a dozen other governments are also stockpiling Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Treasuries is a website that tracks Bitcoin holdings, purchases, and sells across public and private companies, exchange-traded funds, smart contracts, and central governments. As of July 15, this platform reports that governments worldwide hold a total of 517,414 BTC, valued at approximately $32 billion at current prices.
According to Bitcoin Treasuries, these estimates are based on Securities and Exchange Commission filings, quarterly reports, and press releases. However, despite owning 2.5% of the global BTC supply, which is capped at 21 million, governments are not heavily invested in cryptocurrency. Here is a list of nine governments holding the largest amount of Bitcoin and what they plan to do with it.
United StatesBitcoin holdings: 213,246 BTC
Estimated value: $13.4 billion
Source: Bitcoin TreasuriesThe U.S. holds the biggest amount of Bitcoin of any government, much of which was seized from the dark web marketplace Silk Road after authorities shut it down in 2013. Founded by Ross Ulbricht in 2011, the site became one of the earliest adopters of Bitcoin and facilitated peer-to-peer trading of narcotics and other illegal items. Ulbricht is currently serving a life sentence for running the marketplace. Periodically, the U.S. sells the BTC taken from the website following a court order.
ChinaBitcoin holdings: 190,000 BTC
Estimated value: $11.9 billion
Source: Bitcoin TreasuriesChina is believed to have confiscated all of the BTC it is holding from the Plus Token scam in 2019, making it the second largest government holder of the asset. Plus Token, a Ponzi scheme founded in April 2018, mainly targeted investors in China and South Korea and involved cryptocurrency mining. The founders allegedly stole $4 billion in investor funds before law enforcement seized over 190,000 BTC and other cryptocurrencies from the scam operators. It is unclear whether the Chinese government has sold any of the BTC yet.
United KingdomBitcoin holdings: 61,000 BTC
Estimated value: $3.8 billion
In 2021, the UK’s Metropolitan Police seized 61,000 Bitcoin from two Chinese nationals, Jian Wen and Zhimin Qian. At the time, Bitcoin was valued at £1.4 billion. The BTC was linked to a £5 billion investment fraud committed by Qian in China from 2014 to 2017, during which Qian allegedly stole from 128,000 investors. Prosecutors accused Wen, an employee of Qian, of laundering the proceeds by converting the BTC into cash, jewelry, and real estate in the United Kingdom.
UkraineBitcoin holdings: 46,351 BTC
Estimated value: $2.9 billion
Ukraine acquired its Bitcoin through police seizures and donations from individuals supporting the country’s war efforts. In 2023, the country confiscated $1.5 million worth of Bitcoin from Yury Shchigol, the former head of Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service. Other civil servants declared that they owned BTC valued at over $2.7 billion in 2020, although this Bitcoin may not be directly controlled by the Ukrainian government. Since 2022, Ukraine has received more than $225 million in Bitcoin donations.
El SalvadorBitcoin holdings: 5,800 BTC
Estimated value: $364.2 million
Source: Bitcoin TreasuriesEl Salvador, a country in Central America, became the first nation-state to adopt Bitcoin as an official currency in 2021. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, an advocate for Bitcoin, has announced plans to build a Bitcoin city. Since then, El Salvador has accumulated over 5,800 BTC by channeling its volcano energy towards mining the ‘digital gold’ and buying an average of one Bitcoin per day on the open market. After Germany’s rapid sell-off, analysts say that Bitcoin markets might enjoy enhanced safeguards if more governments adopt it as a reserve asset.
BhutanBitcoin holdings: 621 BTC
Estimated value: $39 million
Bhutan, a kingdom in South Asia, has been actively mining Bitcoin for several years. Between 2021 and 2023, the kingdom reportedly invested $540 million in its Bitcoin mining operations. This investment, equivalent to 21% of Bhutan’s GDP at the time, was financed through loans from the Royal Monetary Authority to the state-run Druk Holding & Investments. Bhutan is also working with Singapore-based Bitdeer Technologies to develop a 600-megawatt Bitcoin mining farm, according to Bloomberg.
VenezuelaBitcoin holdings: 240 BTC
Estimated value: $15.1 million
Venezuela began accepting Bitcoin in exchange for its failed cryptocurrency, the Petro. Launched in February 2018, the digital currency was supposedly backed by the nation’s oil reserves and intended to support the bolívar currency. However, the Petro faced resistance from local opposition lawmakers, and the government found it hard to integrate the cryptocurrency with public services like wages or payment for issuing a new passport. Recent reports suggest that Venezuela discontinued the Petro in January.
FinlandBitcoin holdings: 90 BTC
Estimated value: $5.7 million
Source: Bitcoin TreasuriesFinland once held as much as 1,980 Bitcoin, which was seized by Finnish Customs during criminal investigations, mainly from a major drug bust in 2016 where 1,666 BTC were confiscated. Much of this Bitcoin has since been sold through Finland-based crypto firms Coinmotion and Tesseract. The country is reported to have donated about $50 million, the proceeds from these sales, to Ukraine in support of its war against Russia.
Bitcoin holdings: 66 BTC
Estimated value: $4.1 million
It was not clear how Georgia acquired its BTC. However, the small European nation likely obtained the asset through law enforcement seizures, similar to how other countries have acquired their Bitcoin holdings.
Could Governments Collude to Crash Bitcoin?
It is important to note that most governments holding BTC have historically opposed cryptocurrency. Going into 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was repeatedly taken to court before it approved Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds.
Bitcoin’s involvement in money laundering, sanction evasion, and billion-dollar heists has also not endeared it to world governments. BTC’s claims of disrupting, decentralizing, and democratizing the financial world have not won favor with established officialdoms.
As illustrated by Germany’s recent sell-off, $32 billion worth of Bitcoin is held by powerful governments, who may view it more as crime-related money to be liquidated rather than an asset to be strategically managed.
Eric Vander Wal, a software engineer and CEO of Canada-based web3 platform Uprising Labs, explained the negative ramifications of the sell-off. “Dumping a large amount of BTC on the market could be seen as a way to manipulate the market,” he told Cryptonews.
“Significant price swings are net negatives that can drive away market tourists and investors. They also create short-term pressure on the token price, driving investors to sell their holdings as market sentiment turns negative,” Wal added.
The price of Bitcoin slumped around 15% to as low as $53,000 after the German government started selling its BTC holdings. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency is up nearly 5% at around $62,000 on the day.
Independent German MP Joana Cotar accused her government of approaching the sale ignorantly and unstrategically. “I’m not at all sure whether the government was or is aware of the consequences of its sales,” Cotar said, as reported by Forbes.
Top Governments Dashboard
Our team created a dashboard showing the largest tagged Governments on Arkham – including the US, UK, Germany and El Salvador.
For each country, you can see their current BTC holdings, graph of historical balances, and a real-time feed of their most… pic.twitter.com/WQBipaWGoO
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 6, 2024
Countries like China, Venezuela, and Russia have previously placed strict restrictions on the trading of digital currencies, raising the possibility of cryptocurrencies being weaponized for geopolitical hostilities. In some cases, Bitcoin has been completely banned, as in Zimbabwe.
Some observers fear that governments holding BTC might eventually collude to crash Bitcoin markets. Wal, the founder of Uprising Labs, has considered this possibility theoretically.
“Governments could manipulate the price using their large holdings and picking a strategic time to dump their holdings on the market. Selling during periods of market weakness and low liquidity could force a bloodbath,” Wal said.
“Adding regulatory announcements that are negative could also put selling pressure on the token. Such a possibility is backed by previous antecedents of governments and their shared interests in undermining Bitcoin,” he added.
Beyond establishing intelligence task forces to investigate and confiscate BTC, additional measures such as policy safeguards, advisory boards, and extra-territorial platforms are needed to protect crypto markets. Crypto-progressives, like Bundestag representative Joana Cotar in parliament, are a good starting point.
For Wal, establishing international frameworks to manage government-held Bitcoin and prevent market risks could be “positive in the long term.” He says it would “allow for market stability, transparency, regulatory consistency, and the prevention of further market manipulation.”
“This could take the form of a regulatory body composed of representatives from major economies with significant holdings and international organization,” Wal detailed. “However, ultimately, Bitcoin has been designed to be permissionless and would need to be organized at the social level.”
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