The Special Administrative Region of Bhutan, the City of Awareness, Gelephu (GMC), issued the TER token on the Solana blockchain. The digital asset is backed by physical gold held in custodial storage.
The exclusive distributor is DK Bank — the country's first digital bank, regulated by the Royal Monetary Authority. The technical infrastructure was provided by the Matrixdock platform. The name of the token TER comes from a word in the Dzongkha language meaning 'treasure'.
At the initial stage, the asset can be purchased directly through DK Bank.
The GMC board of directors described the launch as a demonstration of how a city friendly to the crypto industry implements responsible innovations while preserving traditional values.
Experts noted that tokenization would allow Bhutan to monetize natural resources without the need for physical extraction and export. In the future, the country may issue tokens backed by silver or other assets.
Earlier, a similar project was implemented by Kyrgyzstan. The country issued a national stablecoin USDKG, backed by state gold reserves.
Bhutan's crypto strategy
The kingdom systematically implements blockchain technologies. Since 2019, the country has been mining bitcoin using hydropower resources.
According to Arkham Intelligence, Bhutan holds 5984 BTC worth over $536 million. This makes the country the seventh largest sovereign holder of the first cryptocurrency in the world.
In January, GMC authorities announced plans to include bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB in strategic reserves.
In May, the kingdom partnered with Binance Pay to implement crypto payments in the tourism sector.
Recall that in October it became known that Bhutan would move its national digital identity system from Polygon to Ethereum.
