Which Countries Hold the Most Bitcoin and How Did They Acquire It?

Bitcoin was created as a decentralized alternative to the traditional financial system - one without a central bank, government or any other institution controlling its issuance. Yet less than two decades later, part of its limited supply sits in the hands of states. Some countries now control thousands or even hundreds of thousands of bitcoins, and at current prices their holdings are worth billions of dollars.

This does not mean, however, that governments around the world have started buying bitcoin en masse the way they buy gold or foreign currency. They have acquired their holdings in very different ways. In some cases it is the result of a long-term investment strategy, in others the bitcoins were mined using state energy infrastructure, and in several cases the bulk of the holdings consists of cryptocurrency seized in police and court proceedings. That is precisely why a ranking of the largest state holders is not just a list of numbers, but also an illustration of how differently individual governments approach the world's largest cryptocurrency.

Establishing the exact order is not always easy either. While the Bitcoin blockchain is public, individual addresses do not automatically reveal their owners. Public statistics are therefore based on identified wallets, court documents and announcements by individual governments. For some countries, it is also unclear whether they still hold all the bitcoins they have acquired over time. So which states control the largest amounts of BTC today, and how did they actually get them?

The US is the largest known state holder of bitcoin

The largest known amount of bitcoin is currently under the control of the US government. In 2026, the on-chain analytics platform Arkham reported that the United States held approximately 325,000 BTC.

Crucially, the United States did not buy most of these bitcoins. They came into its possession through criminal investigations. Among the best-known cases are bitcoins linked to the darknet marketplace Silk Road, cryptocurrency recovered after the hack of the Bitfinex exchange, and more than 50,000 BTC seized from James Zhong, who had previously exploited a flaw in the Silk Road system.

The US position grew significantly in October 2025. The US Department of Justice announced that the government was holding approximately 127,271 BTC in connection with the case of Chen Zhi, founder of the Cambodian Prince Holding Group. At the same time, authorities initiated forfeiture proceedings.

The United States created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

The US approach changed fundamentally in March 2025, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

The reserve is to receive bitcoins that have been definitively forfeited to the US government in criminal or civil proceedings. According to the White House order, BTC held in this way are not to be sold and are intended to serve as a reserve asset. In addition, the Treasury and Commerce Departments were given the option to develop ways of acquiring more bitcoin, provided this imposes no additional costs on taxpayers.

This is a significant shift. The US no longer merely manages bitcoin temporarily as property seized in investigations, but has begun to officially regard part of its coins as a long-term strategic asset.

China may hold around 190,000 BTC. But that is not certain

Second place in many rankings goes to China, with approximately 190,000 BTC. In its case, however, a major asterisk is needed.

The origin of this amount is fairly well documented. As part of a crackdown on the PlusToken Ponzi scheme, Chinese authorities seized, among other assets, 194,775 BTC. According to a Chinese court ruling at the time, the seized digital assets were to be handled in accordance with the law and the proceeds were to go to the state treasury.

What happened to the bitcoins afterwards is much less clear. Arkham points out that it is not known whether China still holds the full amount, or whether some or all of the bitcoins have since been sold. Even so, some public databases still work with an estimate of around 190,000 BTC.

The United Kingdom controls over 61,000 bitcoins

The United Kingdom is also among the largest state holders. British authorities obtained more than 61,000 BTC during an investigation into a massive Chinese investment fraud linked to Qian Zhimin.

According to Reuters, Qian was convicted of money laundering in November 2025. The original investment fraud cost almost 130,000 people billions of dollars, and British police seized more than 61,000 bitcoins in connection with the case.

Here too, however, this is not a conventional monetary reserve. The ultimate fate of a large part of the funds will be decided by legal proceedings and victims' claims. Britain therefore ranks among the largest state holders of bitcoin mainly thanks to police work, not because the government bought BTC as an alternative to gold or foreign exchange reserves.

El Salvador chose a completely different path

At the opposite end of the spectrum stands El Salvador. In 2021 it became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, and the government of President Nayib Bukele began deliberately accumulating BTC.

According to the BitcoinTreasuries database, Salvadoran holdings stood at around 7.7 thousand BTC in September 2026.

The story of the Salvadoran reserve has, however, become more complicated in recent years. As part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country committed to limiting public-sector involvement in bitcoin and to stop using public funds to accumulate more of it.

In September 2026, the International Monetary Fund stated that no public money had been used to increase bitcoin holdings since the first review of the loan program. According to documentation submitted by Salvadoran authorities, the newly added BTC came from private donations. The Fund also expects that no further accumulation will take place beyond the donations already documented.

El Salvador thus remains one of the clearest examples of a country that chose to build a state bitcoin position deliberately, rather than as a result of criminal proceedings.

The United Arab Emirates does not buy bitcoin. It mines it

Yet another model can be seen in the United Arab Emirates. In 2025, the analytics firm Arkham identified thousands of bitcoins originating from mining by Citadel Mining. Through International Holding Company, the firm is linked to the Royal Group of Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan. At the time, Arkham reported that approximately 9,300 BTC had been mined and more than 6,300 BTC remained in identified wallets. In 2026, on-chain data put the amount at around 6,000 to 7,000 BTC.

Here too, however, it would be inaccurate to simply claim that this is a reserve of the UAE federal government in the same way as the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Rather, these are bitcoins held by structures closely connected to the ruling family and state capital.

From an investment perspective, the UAE model is nonetheless interesting. The country did not acquire bitcoin primarily through purchases or confiscation, but through industrial-scale production.

Kazakhstan wants to turn crypto into a genuine state reserve

Kazakhstan has recently joined the group of states actively working with cryptocurrencies. Back in September 2025, its central bank confirmed that it was preparing a state digital asset fund to form part of the country's broader state reserves. Management is to be entrusted to the National Investment Corporation, which belongs to the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

In 2026, Kazakhstan also set up a system that allows the state crypto reserve to be replenished from domestic mining as well. Under certain conditions, large miners can obtain more favorable, longer-term access to electricity in exchange for a portion of the mined digital assets earmarked for the national reserve.

Bhutan turned hydropower into bitcoin

One of the most interesting bitcoin experiments among states is Bhutan. Through its sovereign investment fund Druk Holding and Investments, the small Himalayan kingdom began using surplus hydropower to mine cryptocurrency as early as around 2019. In 2025, Reuters reported that proceeds from crypto activities had helped, among other things, to finance public spending and support foreign exchange liquidity.

At one point Bhutan held around 13,000 BTC, which, given the size of its economy, represented an exceptionally significant position. During 2026, however, large amounts of bitcoin began flowing out of identified state wallets. In June, according to The Block, Arkham recorded only approximately 1,750 BTC in the then-known wallets after another series of transfers.

The exact current amount is therefore disputed, and different databases report markedly different figures. Bhutan is also a good example of why compiling a ranking of state bitcoin reserves requires tracking not only the numbers themselves, but also the methodology, update date and specific blockchain addresses.

Not all state-held bitcoins are a true bitcoin reserve

Looking at individual countries, it is easy to get the impression that governments buy bitcoin much as central banks buy gold. In reality, the picture is far more varied.

The United States acquired most of its BTC through criminal proceedings, but subsequently elevated part of it to a strategic reserve asset. The United Kingdom holds a huge volume of seized bitcoins without a comparable reserve strategy. In China's case, it is not even certain whether the country still owns the amount attributed to it by public statistics.

El Salvador, by contrast, bought bitcoin deliberately. Bhutan and UAE-linked structures mined it. Kazakhstan is trying to combine a state investment fund with its domestic mining industry. The number of BTC alone therefore tells far from the whole story of a country's bitcoin policy.

Can states change the bitcoin market?

For now, governments control only a small portion of the total bitcoin supply. The BitcoinTreasuries database records hundreds of thousands of BTC held by government and state entities, which is only a few percent of the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins. Even these statistics, however, include items whose ownership or classification may be debatable.

The significance of states today therefore lies not only in the absolute number of coins they hold. The change in approach may matter more. Just a few years ago, state bitcoin holdings were almost exclusively a by-product of police confiscations. Today there is the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, El Salvador has built its own portfolio, Kazakhstan is creating a state crypto fund, and other countries are experimenting with mining or other forms of exposure.

If bitcoin were to become a more common component of state reserves in the future, this could affect the market given its strictly limited supply. For now, however, there is no global race among central banks for bitcoin. Rather, we are witnessing several very different experiments showing that governments no longer view the world's largest cryptocurrency merely as an asset standing outside the traditional financial system.

The content of this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy any particular asset. Investing in crypto-assets involves high risk. The value of crypto-assets can go down as well as up, and you may lose the entire amount invested. Crypto-assets are not protected by deposit guarantee schemes. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.