Bhutan, a country that measures national progress by Gross National Happiness, debuted a gold-backed digital token on Thursday, marking the country’s latest move in its multi-year-long blockchain strategy.
The TER token was issued on Solana’s blockchain by Gelephu Mindfulness City, a designated Special Administrative Region in Bhutan. The sovereign-backed token is designed to act as a new bridge between traditional value stores and blockchain-based finance, with each token representing physical gold held in custody.
“The latest move for the gold-backed token will have limited uptake, given it is for a specific use case in the GMC, but it again signals the Kingdom’s vision to align with stablecoin ecosystems while choosing Gold as a neutral asset to underpin the token,” Musheer Ahmed, founder and managing director of Finstep Asia, said in an emailed press release.
DK Bank, Bhutan’s first licensed digital bank regulated by the Royal Monetary Authority, will exclusively handle TER’s distribution and custody.
During the first phase, users will be able to purchase TER directly via DK Bank, with the tokens held in institutional custody.
Crypto financial services company Matrixdock, which obtained the Financial Services Licence from Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority in September, will supply the tokenization infrastructure.
“By issuing gold-backed digital tokens with sovereign branding, 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, Board of Directors of GMC, posited in a statement.
The price of Solana is down 4.5% over the past day, currently trading hands at $131.19, according to CoinGecko. The news comes shortly after Kyrgyzstan launched USDKG, a gold-backed national stablecoin pegged 1:1 with the U.S. dollar, with an initial issuance of over $50 million and fully backed by the state’s physical gold reserves.
Bhutan Has Been Stacking Bitcoin
Bhutan has quietly become a leader in crypto adoption in recent years, bolstered by the country’s abundant hydroelectric resources.
The country holds 11,286 BTC, valued at around $1.02 billion, making it the fifth-largest sovereign holder globally, trailing only the US, China, the UK, and Ukraine, according to BitBo’s Bitcoin Treasuries data.
Bhutan may also be working on other crypto projects, having met with Binance co-founder and ex-CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao a few months ago, although the details of their meeting were not revealed to the public.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/bhutan-rolls-out-sovereign-gold-backed-token-on-solana/
