The Himalayan monarchical government has launched a gold-backed digital token through its Gelephu Mindfulness City. This announcement was made in an email statement shared with Cryptopolitan on Thursday.
Gelephu Mindfulness City, the recently established Bhutan Special Administrative Region, has released a token named TER on the Solana blockchain. According to the Kingdom’s press statement, each TER token represents an equivalent amount of physical gold held in custody. Investors can purchase this token as a blockchain-based version of the precious metal.
Distribution and custody of the new token will be handled by Bhutan’s first licensed digital financial institution, DK Bank. DK Bank will serve as the primary on-ramp for investors during the project’s initial phase.
In a statement included in the release, Bhutan explained that the token was created to provide international investors with a modern, accessible means of holding gold. Investors can still benefit from the global transferability offered by the Solana blockchain network.
The Solana Foundation is honored that Gelephu Mindfulness City has chosen Solana as the blockchain infrastructure for TER. This collaboration shows how forward-looking nations can use Solana’s technology to bring high-quality, asset-backed digital products to a global audience while staying true to their cultural values and regulatory standards.
President of the Solana Foundation Lily Liu.
Gelephu Mindfulness City Launches Digital Gold Initiative
The launch of a tokenized version of gold reinforces Bhutan’s vision for Gelephu Mindfulness City. The government aims to attract global capital from crypto firms to this special administrative region. Gelephu Mindfulness City possesses distinct regulatory flexibility compared to the broader kingdom’s jurisdiction, similar to how China utilizes Hong Kong as a crypto sandbox.
Matrixdock, a digital asset financial services platform, will provide the tokenization framework. This is under a Financial Services Licence granted by the Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority in September.
We are demonstrating how a crypto-friendly city can welcome responsible innovation while staying rooted in Bhutan’s values of transparency, sustainability, and long-term stewardship.
Jigdrel Singay, a member of the Gelephu Mindfulness City board.
The launch of TER adds to Bhutan’s existing digital asset ambitions, which include Bitcoin treasuries and crypto mining. According to data from the crypto analytics firm Arkham, the Royal Kingdom holds Bitcoins worth approximately $540 million. This amount represents about 15% of its nominal projected gross domestic product for 2025.
Bhutan did not accumulate its digital holdings through asset seizures or major market purchases like Western nations. Instead, the kingdom began building large-scale mining operations in 2020, leveraging its abundant hydropower resources.
Ujjwal Deep Dahal, chief executive of the sovereign wealth fund Druk Holding and Investments, which oversaw the mining program, stated, “For Bhutan, it was quite obvious in a lot of ways. We kind of look at bitcoin as a store of value, similar to gold.”
Despite these digital asset initiatives, the country’s embrace of them has not been sufficient to revive the numbers of its tourism-dependent economy. Tourism in Bhutan was heavily impacted by the pandemic. According to the Wall Street Journal, approximately 10% of Bhutan's population has left the country over the past five years to seek better wages abroad.
Former prime minister Dr. Lotay Tshering told WSJ, “We are poor. Many people refer to Bhutan and Bhutanese as the happiest country in the world. We are not.”
Approximately 70% of Bhutan’s territory, which spans about 38,000 square kilometers, is covered by forest. This level of protection is safeguarded by the constitution, which mandates that national forest cover must never fall below 60%.
The country’s new Gelephu Mindfulness City is a 4,000-square-kilometer special zone currently under construction along the southern border. This zone is more than five times the size of Singapore.
Regional Momentum Builds on Kyrgyzstan’s Gold-Backed USDKG
Just days before Bhutan unveiled TER, Cryptopolitan reported that the Kyrgyz Republic launched a gold-backed stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, named USDKG. This initiative represents one of Central Asia’s first state-supervised digital token programs.
The issuer, OJSC Virtual Asset Issuer, operates under the Ministry of Finance and within the framework of Kyrgyzstan’s 2022 Law on Virtual Assets. USDKG has an initial supply of $50 million worth of tokens, and each unit is fully backed by physical gold reserves.
The launch ceremony took place on December 1 in Bishkek. Attendees included President Sadyr Japarov, Finance Minister Almaz Baketaev, and Biibolot Mamytov, the CEO of the project’s operator, Gold Dollar. The dignitaries pressed a symbolic “Launch Issuance” button to activate USDKG’s circulation.