Governments now hold more than 500,000 Bitcoin between them.
For some, it is simply another investment class or a hedge against geopolitical uncertainty. For others, digital assets embody a belief, however selective, in financial innovation and decentralisation. And for some, their holdings are more accidental than strategic.
The macro case for Bitcoin is persuasive enough: its long-term price chart suggests that even a small allocation can add value to a nation’s balance sheet.
There is a however. Several, in fact.
The entire premise of Bitcoin was to remove state control from money. Now, governments and sovereign funds are becoming some of the largest holders, alongside the Bitcoin treasuries owned by the cryptocracy. Their participation risks undermining the decentralised ethos of digital currency.
The tension is sharpened by the fact that governments are both regulators of and investors in the asset. This is particularly true now, when standards around guardrails are still in their infancy.
There are also practical risks: countries could manipulate markets by dumping Bitcoin to pressure rivals, or suffer a cyber breach, the modern equivalent of a bank heist. As quantum computing advances, that risk will only grow.
Still, a growing number of countries are taking the plunge, though not Singapore, at least for now.
The new digital sovereigns
Abu Dhabi is home to the world’s second-largest sovereign fund, behind Norway and ahead of China. It has invested in blockchain start-ups, exchanges such as Coinbase, and DeFi platforms. According to US filings, it holds 8.7mn shares in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, worth about $500mn.
Bhutan mines Bitcoin using hydropower, showing that digital assets and clean energy can coexist. It reportedly holds 11,286 BTC.
China holds 194,000 BTC, seized from the 2019 PlusToken scam. However, the Bitcoin community, with its emphasis on proof through data, is sceptical. In December 2024, the founder of Timechain Index, a Bitcoin data platform, wrote on X: “There is no proof that China still holds any of their confiscated Bitcoin. Anyone thinking that they do, please provide us with the addresses.”
El Salvador, alone in making Bitcoin legal tender, treats it as ideology as much as investment. Its holdings stand at 6,246 BTC.
Luxembourg plans to allocate 1% of its sovereign wealth fund to Bitcoin ETFs from 2026, part of a broader shift toward alternative assets.
Norway’s $1.7tn sovereign fund, the world’s biggest, has no direct crypto holdings but maintains indirect exposure equivalent to about 11,400 BTC through investments in Bitcoin treasury firms such as MicroStrategy and Metaplanet. That equates to roughly 0.1% of total assets.
Singapore’s Temasek invested in digital-asset firms such as Binance, Animoca Brands, and, disastrously, FTX. That experiment ended with a $275mn write-down, salary reductions for those responsible, and a public commitment not to return to digital-asset investment.
The global crypto sector made its allegiances clear when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Most of Ukraine’s reported 46,351 BTC holdings were donated by supporters to aid the war effort. Yet, much like China’s stash, questions persist about whether those funds still exist.
The United Kingdom holds 61,245 BTC, mostly from law enforcement seizures.
The United States, meanwhile, boasts 198,021 BTC, mainly confiscated through criminal cases. In March 2025, President Trump used an executive order to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile to formalise those holdings.
The Treasury’s seized coins form the basis of the Reserve, with other agencies “exploring transferring their Bitcoin.” The coins will not be sold. The Treasury and Commerce Departments are studying “budget-neutral” ways to acquire more Bitcoin, for example, by revaluing gold certificates or redirecting surplus funds. The Stockpile covers non-Bitcoin assets forfeited to the Treasury. No further purchases will be made, and those assets may be sold.
David Sacks, Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, called the initiative “a digital Fort Knox for cryptocurrency.” Not everyone agrees. Charles Edwards of Capriole Fund dismissed it as “a pig in lipstick.” “No active buying means this is just a fancy title for Bitcoin holdings that already existed,” he said.
Sixteen US states have also discussed state-level Bitcoin reserve legislation. Wisconsin’s State Investment Board, for example, bought and sold shares in BlackRock and Grayscale Bitcoin ETFs and still holds about $50 mn of Strategy ETF shares. It says it will continue to invest in blockchain start-ups and “crypto solutions” to help build “stable and profitable crypto companies.”
Looking beyond
Smaller caches exist elsewhere: Finland with 90 BTC, Georgia with 66. Germany sold 50,000 BTC in July 2024 at an average price of $57,600 apiece.
Whether their motivations are pragmatic, ideological, or accidental, states are becoming part of the very system Bitcoin was meant to bypass. The revolution, it seems, is being nationalised.
