Financial services giant Fidelity predicts several countries will begin stockpiling Bitcoin this year, bringing about broader adoption of the world's oldest crypto.
Several nations could establish strategic Bitcoin reserves in 2025 to hedge against “debilitating inflation, currency debasement, and increasingly crushing financial deficits,” Fidelity wrote in a report on Monday.
That’s because global leaders are warming up to the crypto following the U.S.’s touted plans to embrace Bitcoin amid growing institutional investor interest, according to Fidelity Digital Assets analyst Matt Hogan.
“We anticipate more nation-states, central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and government treasuries will look to establish strategic positions in Bitcoin,” Hogan said in the report.
Crypto-curious countries might model their plans for creating Bitcoin reserves after policies from pro-Bitcoin nations such as Bhutan and El Salvador, where government officials have already notched significant returns.
El Salvador's Bitcoin holdings are valued at more than $570 million, while Bhutan holds north of $1.1 billion, on-chain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence's data shows.
The U.S. has the most significant Bitcoin stockpile of any world nation, valued at roughly $19.3 billion. It’s followed by China, the UK, and Ukraine, which hold $19.2 billion, $6.2 billion and $4.7 billion of the cryptocurrency, respectively.
Those massive holdings do not necessarily translate into massive returns, however.
Some countries, such as the U.S., have certain requirements for handling or auctioning off Bitcoin, limiting their ability to count the assets as part of their treasuries.
Still, there are plenty of incentives for countries to begin holding Bitcoin, particularly as the asset’s price continues to hover around its all-time-high price of $108,000, the report shows.
“We may be entering the dawn of a new era for digital assets, one poised to span multiple years — if not decades,” Hogan said in the report.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair