In 2018, Bulgaria sold 213,500 BTC in 2018 worth $3.5 billion confiscated the previous year. Now, these BTC would be more than enough to cover the country’s public debt. The same amount of bitcoins today would be worth about $25 billion. This is more than the country’s public debt of $24 billion, according to World Economics.
But the volatility of bitcoin makes it difficult to use as a stable reserve, so it can hardly be considered a mistake. Alex Obchakevich, founder of Obchakevich Research, said that the potential benefits of holding bitcoin were «overshadowed by the risks of a sharp drop in value».
Instead, Robert Znidar, director of crypto asset management platform Iconomi, believes that the sale was motivated by «ignorance of the philosophy, utility, and mission of BTC». Instead of holding it as a reserve, the country could have diversified its reserves, limiting the share of bitcoin to 10-15%, selling it in stages, and hedging it through derivatives.
According to Bitbo, collectively, the countries hold about 529,705 BTC, approximately 2.52% of the total supply. The two largest holders are the United States and China. They hold more than 207,189 BTC and exactly 194,000 BTC, respectively. The United Kingdom is in third place with 61,000 BTC, followed by Ukraine with 46,351 BTC. The fifth-largest holder is Bhutan with 13,029 BTC.
Source: Cointelegraph
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