UAE triggers ‘gold replacement’ debate with $518mln Bitcoin move, now what?
Key Takeaways
Why is the UAE aggressively shopping for BTC?
The nation views it as “digital gold,” price a long-term wager as a strategic asset.
What’s the broader demand from different international locations?
There was a gentle rise in demand from governments worldwide; now this cohort holds over 645,000 BTC.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has tripled its Bitcoin holdings in 2025.
In line with a Bloomberg report, Abu Dhabi Funding Council (ADIC) scaled its place in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin [BTC] Belief (IBIT) by 230% by the tip of Q3.
At the moment (finish of September), the place was valued at almost $518 million, about 8 million IBIT shares, up from 2.4 million three months earlier.
ADIC operations are run independently, but it surely’s a subsidiary of Mubadala, a sovereign wealth fund that’s absolutely owned by the UAE. Requested concerning the reasoning behind the aggressive BTC bid, an ADIC spokesperson advised Bloomberg,
“We see Bitcoin enjoying an more and more essential function alongside gold; each property contribute to diversifying our portfolio, and we anticipate to carry them as a part of our close to and long-term technique.”
That stance positioned BTC as a strategic reserve asset for the UAE. That raised a bigger query: Was the nation-state sport principle round BTC now taking form?
Czech, El Salvador & extra scale BTC holdings
Maybe one of the crucial notable new gamers is the Czech Republic. The nation’s central financial institution acquired its first $1 million in BTC, stablecoin, and tokenized merchandise.
Earlier in October, Luxembourg additionally introduced that it had allotted 1% of its sovereign wealth fund to BTC and crypto property, amounting to about €7 million. Different new patrons this 12 months embrace Saudi Arabia.
On the identical time, OGs like El Salvador have upped their acquisition and just lately added $100 million BTC, bringing the nation’s general stash to 7,474 cash, price $676 million.
Now, governments ranked because the third-largest holders of BTC, with 645,000 BTC, after public firms and ETFs.
Supply: Bitcoin Treasuries
For digital asset supervisor Bitwise, the federal government’s general BTC holdings translated to just one.5% in comparison with 17% possession in gold.
To the agency, this meant that BTC was nonetheless within the early phases of adoption amongst states, and acceleration may additionally increase its worth.
This autumn drawdown exams conviction
Supply: Bitwise
Even so, the This autumn sell-off, which has resulted in a virtually 30% decline within the BTC worth to $90k, has uncovered present nation-state holders to a big paper loss.
Maybe the This autumn filings, anticipated in early 2026, will present which nations had robust long-term conviction throughout this era.
