The Bhutanese Leading the way.
There was troubling news when the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance suffered the largest cryptocurrency heist in history on 29th October 2026, when hackers stole around USD 6.3 billion to 6.4 billion across multiple blockchains.
The first thought for Bhutanese who read or saw this news was if the hack had impacted any of Bhutan’s Bitcoins now worth more than a billion dollars.
A reliable source said that Bhutan’s Bitcoins are all safe, and none of them were affected for two reasons.
The first being that Bhutan does not store its Bitcoins with Binance, and it is instead spread out with four or five other companies that specialize in storing these coins with multiple layers of security.
The second reason is that Bhutan keeps its Bitcoins stored in ‘cold wallets’ which are essentially in places without internet connection or access, and hence it cannot be hacked.
The Binance hack was on its hot wallets or its exchange, which is connected to the internet for transactions and exchange.
“We do not do crypto trading or buying and selling crypto constantly which is what the exchange is for,” said the source.
The source said Bhutan does not use such exchanges as they are more for smaller players and lack the liquidity that Bhutan needs. Instead, Bhutan makes Over-The-Counter (OTC) transactions, in which the buyer is identified in advance, and a test is done with a small amount, and once things are verified then the full transaction is done.
According to the source, for any transaction, there are robust policies and processes in place. There is a multigrade approval system and a multi security system and any sale is done only for a short duration, avoiding any exchange and instead using the more secure OTC system.
The source said that despite the various security measures or safeguards, it distributes its coins among the four or five companies located in different regions to reduce risk. He said there are multiple agreements with these companies, and insurance is also involved.
Bhutan holds enough Bitcoins to cover the 10,000 Bitcoins dedicated by His Majesty to the Gelephu Mindfulness City, and then some more.
Bhutan mines an average of 5 to 10 Bitcoins a day depending on the availability of cheap power and also the mining difficulty rate.
In the Binance hack, the attackers gained entry through a multi-stage social engineering campaign that compromised a Binance engineer’s computer via bogus job interviews on a legitimate platform, alongside a manipulated internal AI/coding tool. The engineer was tricked to download a file as a ‘task’ that contained a malware. It appears that other engineers were also targeted.
Hackers exploited hot wallet signing infrastructure and Ethereum EIP-7702 pre-signed authorizations to drain roughly USD 6.36 billion in Bitcoin, Ether, and stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) within a short window (20 minutes).
Major blockchain intelligence and cybersecurity firms including Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and Elliptic along with the FBI and U.S. Secret Service, have attributed the attack to TraderTraitor (also linked to the Lazarus Group), a state-backed North Korean cybercrime unit.
North Korea has denied the allegations.
