Bhutan creates Gelephu central bank cleared to hold crypto

Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck signed a Royal Decree creating the Gelephu Central Bank (GCB), an autonomous institution that may hold digital and cryptocurrency assets in its reserves, ForexCrunch reported. The bank replaces the Gelephu Financial Services Office and serves Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), a special administrative region in the south of the country, according to crypto.news and Crypto Briefing.

The reserve permission is discretionary, not a purchase order. No allocation has been confirmed and no holdings have been disclosed. The stated aim of the arrangement is to strengthen the bank’s liquidity and accountability policies, according to ForexCrunch.

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Key facts

• The Royal Decree elevates the Gelephu Financial Services Office into the autonomous Gelephu Central Bank and was signed on November 1-2, 2026, per ForexCrunch and Crypto Briefing; no official decree text had surfaced.
• GCB will manage monetary policy, oversee foreign reserves and supervise financial institutions inside the GMC boundary, with the decree also covering payment settlement systems, emergency liquidity support and development of money and capital markets, per the BBS account cited by crypto.news.
• In December 2025, GMC received a pledge of up to 10,000 BTC drawn from Bhutan’s national holdings, ForexCrunch and Crypto Briefing reported.
• GMC appointed Canadian digital asset manager 3iQ in July to oversee a mandate backed by an undisclosed slice of its Bitcoin treasury, per crypto.news.
• GMC is recruiting more than 50 professionals for roles including virtual asset supervision, anti-money laundering and regulatory policy, crypto.news and Crypto Briefing reported.

A legal mandate, not a treasury trade

ForexCrunch draws the distinction that reserve watchers will care about. A company or a city treasury that buys Bitcoin is making a discretionary balance-sheet bet that a board can reverse. GCB instead manages monetary policy, foreign reserves and financial supervision under a royal instrument. Central banks with explicit permission to hold digital assets are rare, which puts the new institution in limited company even before it holds anything.

The reported sources differ on timing and detail. ForexCrunch and Crypto Briefing both place the signing at November 1-2, 2026, with ForexCrunch noting the date rests on a single report and that no official decree text had appeared. Crypto Briefing credits John Chen; ForexCrunch was authored by Saqib Iqbal. Crypto Briefing also names BTSE Bhutan among the licensed digital asset firms operating in the zone, while crypto.news lists custody permissions for Matrix Gelephu, DK and Ceffu Digital and says BTSE Exchange is authorized to run a multilateral trading facility and provide custody.

Also read: SEC Proposes Conditional Crypto Self-Custody for Advisers

The decree also opens a route for GMC to introduce its own currency, including a digital form, subject to the King’s concurrence and with no timeline attached, crypto.news reported.

Bitcoin groundwork predates the bank

The region’s crypto policy was in motion long before the regulator was upgraded. In January 2025, GMC named Bitcoin, Ether and BNB among assets it intended to recognize as strategic reserves, favoring large-capitalization tokens with enough liquidity for trading without heavy price disruption, according to crypto.news. Its December 2025 Bitcoin Development Pledge tied the country’s hydroelectric-powered mining to job creation and skills development, with capital preservation, oversight and transparency listed as governing principles.

Gelephu’s Bitcoin therefore originates from surplus hydropower rather than asset seizures, a different pipeline from most governments. The July 3iQ appointment also connected GMC to Nasdaq-listed Coincheck Group, which had completed the acquisition of a 99.8% beneficial interest in 3iQ in February, crypto.news reported. In an August 6 interview published by 3iQ, chief strategy officer Matteo Dante Perruccio described the company’s duty as protecting the assets and helping to accumulate more Bitcoin for deployment into the project.

Why it matters

The signal for traders is institutional rather than positional: a jurisdiction is writing digital assets into the legal layer that governs reserve management, the same layer that covers foreign exchange and gold. For crypto firms shopping for a licensed home, GMC now pairs a rules framework under the Financial Services Act 2025 with a supervisory team and a central bank that speaks the same language. Whether the hires and the framework translate into firms beyond the handful already licensed will shape how the zone is read abroad.

What to watch

The first hard number will come if GCB discloses any digital asset holdings and at what size. A royal approval for a GMC currency and further licensed entrants following BTSE are the other concrete markers. Nothing here is an investment recommendation; digital asset markets are volatile and uncertain.

Written by

StockPil Editorial

The StockPil Editorial desk covers stock markets, business, finance, forex and crypto. Our AI-assisted newsroom builds each article from published, linked sources, checks it for accuracy before it goes live, and our editors review published articles and correct anything that needs it.

Sources: ForexCrunch, crypto.news, Crypto Briefing