Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) said 3iQ Corp. will manage a portion of its bitcoin treasury using a market-neutral strategy, marking a move away from simply holding BTC as a long-term sovereign asset.
GMC, a special administrative region located in southern Bhutan, has appointed Canadian digital asset investment firm 3iQ Corp. to oversee part of its bitcoin holdings, according to an announcement from both organizations.
The two parties did not reveal the size of the bitcoin allocation assigned to 3iQ.
The key detail is how the treasury will be managed. GMC told CoinDesk that it selected Toronto-based 3iQ to pursue long-term returns through a lower-risk, market-neutral investment strategy, indicating that the bitcoin reserve could be actively deployed to generate yield instead of remaining untouched.
Market-neutral approaches can include strategies such as basis trading or crypto lending, with similar strategies in broader markets often targeting annual returns of at least 5%. GMC has not disclosed which specific strategy 3iQ will implement.
The development follows Bhutan’s December announcement that King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck planned to allocate up to 10,000 BTC, valued at around $1 billion at the time, as a long-term national asset supporting Gelephu’s development. At the time, potential uses included holding the bitcoin, using it as collateral, or applying treasury management strategies.
The size of the 3iQ mandate is significant because questions have remained over the status of Bhutan’s bitcoin holdings.
In May, CoinDesk reported that Ujjwal Deep Dahal, CEO of Druk Holdings, Bhutan’s state-owned investment arm, said he could not remember when the company last sold bitcoin, despite blockchain data suggesting that approximately $1 billion worth of BTC had moved from wallets linked to the organization. Neither GMC nor 3iQ has disclosed the source of the bitcoin being managed.
Beyond financial returns, GMC said the partnership is expected to support job creation for Bhutanese youth and develop local expertise in technology and finance. The specific initiatives connected to the program are still being finalized.
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