Bhutan to raise $500M for 'green' crypto mining in the Himalayas

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, together with the Nasdaq-listed Bitdeer Technologies, is planning to set up a $500 million corpus to develop crypto mining in the country, as per a Bloomberg report.

Bhutan's government, through Druk Holding and Investments—its investment arm—will target institutional investors starting from May 2023, to fund crypto mining projects fuelled by the nation's vast hydroelectric power capacity.

The $500 million will also be used to develop data centres in the country.

While many countries grapple with the regulatory challenges posed by cryptocurrencies, Bhutan seems to be embracing their potential benefits, with mining serving as one of the lower-risk approaches to get into crypto.

In fact, Bitdeer expects to set up a 100-megawatt plant in Bhutan by the end of September 2023. Through the partnership, Singapore-based Bitdeer, which operates six crypto mining sites across the US and Norway, will expand into Asia.

Reportedly, Bhutan's goal with the new crypto mining initiative is to accelerate its digital and economic transformation by exploring emerging sectors.

Earlier this week, Forbes reported that Bhutan has been mining Bitcoin for quite some time now, entering when one BTC was worth around $5,000.