The United Arab Emirates (UAE) holds approximately $700 million in Bitcoin, primarily amassed through mining activities, as indicated by the blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence.
Arkham reported in a post on X that it has become one of the first entities to publicly reveal the UAE government’s wallet addresses, discovering that these wallets contain around 6,300 Bitcoin (BTC).
This Bitcoin was generated through Citadel Mining, which is predominantly owned by the UAE government’s conglomerate, the International Holding Company (IHC).
“Unlike the US and UK, the UAE’s Bitcoin holdings originate from mining operations with Citadel Mining rather than police asset seizures,” Arkham noted.
The reported Bitcoin holdings are significantly lower than earlier speculations, which often suggested that the UAE possessed around 420,000 Bitcoin acquired from various criminal seizures, valued at $46 billion, potentially making the Emirates the largest nation-state holder of Bitcoin worldwide.
UAE Mining Firm Linked to Royal Family
Arkham stated that in collaboration with Phoenix Group, a publicly listed UAE mining company, and the IHC, Citadel constructed a Bitcoin mining facility in Abu Dhabi in 2022.
“We were able to verify the timeline of on-chain mining activities with time-lapse satellite imagery of the facility’s construction,” the firm indicated.
“The on-chain transactions between Phoenix and Citadel also align with the amounts reported in official disclosures.”
Arkham estimates that through Citadel, the UAE has mined a total of 9,300 Bitcoin.
Citadel Mining is 85% owned by 2pointzero, which in turn is owned by the IHC, and the UAE Royal Group, a conglomerate controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, holds a 61% stake in it.
Comparing UAE to Other Countries
With its newly reported holdings, the UAE would rank as the sixth-largest Bitcoin holder among nations, trailing Bhutan’s 11,286 and surpassing El Salvador’s 6,246, according to BitBo.
The U.S. remains the largest nation-state holder of Bitcoin, possessing 198,012, primarily from criminal seizures. China follows with 194,000, most of which stems from its 2019 crackdown on the PlusToken scam, while the UK holds third place with 61,245 Bitcoin.
BitBo estimates that 517,000 Bitcoin are stored in sovereign vaults, representing around 2.4% of the total supply, with a cumulative value of over $56 billion.
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However, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is believed to possess 1.096 million Bitcoin spread across thousands of wallets, according to Arkham, making them the largest holder, while Michael Saylor’s company, Strategy, is the largest corporate holder with a treasury of 629,376 Bitcoin, or 2.9% of the total supply, and continues to grow.
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