According to unofficial sources, Bulgaria as a country holds more Bitcoin in reserve than it holds gold at the time of writing.

The popularly accepted standard for both national and international reserves is Gold. In backing fiat currencies, most nations pile up a gold storage in value. For Bulgaria, the gold reserve is around 40 tons, which is valued at $1.8 billion.

How Did Bulgaria Acquire Bitcoins?

In May 2017, the Southeast European Law Enforcement Centre (SELEC) in a press release made it known to the public that the Bulgarian government had in its possession up to 200,000 BTC. Meaning that for the first time in history, a country holds more Bitcoins in reserve than gold. According to the report, the Bitcoins in question were seized in an ongoing investigation into organized crime and investment in digital assets.

At the time of the seizure, the value of the BTC was around half a million dollars, this was in 2017. Down the road, the price of Bitcoin has risen significantly, pushing up the value of the held BTC to around $2.8 billion.

There have been conflicting stories over the confisticated Bitcoin, with the government not divulging too much on the matter. Despite not outrightly agreeing to being in custody of any Bitcoins, the government of Bulgaria has not proven the SELEC reports to be incorrect.

The nature of blockchain technology makes such cases quite easy to establish. By simply using the addresses that hold the Bitcoins, it will be a matter of seconds to find out who really holds them. But the Bulgarian government are reluctant in making public these addresses.

From all indications, or at least until the Bulgarian government proves otherwise, it is believed that they are still in custody of the Bitcoins.

The Proper Way To Hold Bitcoins

This goes a long way in spreading the growth in the adoption of Bitcoin, and the recognition that is being attached to the cryptocurrency and all other similar digital assets. The Bitcoins in question are being confisticated not because they are Bitcoins, but for what they were being used for. This makes it important that the industry adopts proper transaction models.

Consider the tap platform for instance, which offers services to crypto holders that trade them or use them for transactions. The service involves the use of an app and a tap prepaid MastercardⓇ.

Users of any of these services can cleanly and conveniently make verifiable transactions that are free of suspicion. The tap innovation is a pro adoption facility that is revolutionizing how crypto users operate. It makes it very easy to store, trade or spend cryptocurrencies from any part of the world.

Bitcoin has been compared to gold in many different ways, one of which is in its ability to store value. While the drag between the Bulgarian government and SELEC continues over Bitcoin custody, one thing is for sure: Bulgaria holds more Bitcoin in reserve than any other country in the world.