UAE-linked bitcoin mining amasses $344 million unrealized profit excluding energy costs: Arkham

The United Arab Emirates is sitting on approximately $344 million in unrealized profit from royal family-linked bitcoin mining operations, excluding energy costs, according to data from Arkham.

The Gulf nation currently holds a total of $453.6 million in bitcoin (BTC) mined through state-linked infrastructure, maintaining a consistent production rate of 4.2 BTC per day over the previous seven days, the data shows.

UAE’s mining push traces back to 2022, when Citadel Mining, an entity tied to Abu Dhabi’s royal family, established large-scale operations on Al Reem Island. In 2023, Marathon Digital Holdings and Abu Dhabi-based Zero Two announced a joint venture to develop 250 megawatts of immersion-cooled mining capacity in the UAE, marking one of the region’s largest disclosed industrial deployments.

Arkham’s latest data revises downward the $700 million in mined bitcoin it attributed to the UAE in August 2025, when the firm first identified the country’s wallets on its platform and bitcoin prices were trading at higher levels. At that time, Arkham reported the UAE had mined approximately 9,300 BTC and continued holding about 6,300 BTC, ranking it fourth among government entities with verified onchain holdings.

The current data shows the UAE Royal Group holds about 6,782 BTC, representing 0.03% of bitcoin’s total supply.

Beyond the Gulf: Other sovereign miners and holders

The UAE is not the only sovereign entity mining bitcoin. Bhutan’s Royal Government, through its investment arm Druk Holding & Investments, began mining in 2019 using the country’s hydroelectric resources. At its peak, Bhutan accumulated over $1 billion in bitcoin, with Arkham first identifying its holdings in September 2024 at just over 13,000 BTC.

Unlike the UAE, which Arkham reports has not moved funds in four months, Bhutan has been systematically reducing its position. Since the beginning of 2026, Bhutan has sold bitcoin for three consecutive weeks, totaling approximately $29 million, with the most recent sale occurring in February. Over the past five months, Bhutan has sold more than $100 million in bitcoin, reducing its holdings by more than half from peak levels. The government currently holds 5,600 BTC valued at $375 million, according to Arkham data.

Several other governments hold significant bitcoin portfolios, though unlike the UAE and Bhutan, their accumulations derive primarily from asset seizures. According to Arkham, the U.S. government ranks first among sovereign holders with 328,000 BTC valued at $22 billion, representing 1.64% of the total supply.

These holdings were recovered by the FBI from the Bitfinex hack, seizures from the Silk Road marketplace, and assets taken from Silk Road hacker James Zhong. The U.S. recently acquired an additional 127,000 BTC from the LuBian Hacker address, per Arkham.

The UK government ranks second with 61,000 BTC valued at $4 billion, or 0.3% of total supply. The UK Metropolitan Police seized part of this bitcoin stash from Jian Wen and Zhimin Qian in 2018, gaining access to the funds in July 2021.

Other governments have accumulated bitcoin through different channels. Ukraine has received $22.8 million in bitcoin donations since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, while Germany seized 50,000 BTC in January 2024 from a movie piracy site and fully sold the holdings in July 2024. Arkham’s platform tracks these and other sovereign wallets, though it notes that additional government holdings may remain unidentified.