Bhutan's King gives Gelephu office central banking powers, crypto investing included

Bhutan just made a quiet but heavy move. According to Cointelegraph, the country's King granted central banking powers to the Gelephu Financial Services Office. That authority comes with a green light to invest in digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

The same order also opens a pathway for the office to introduce its own currency, a rare step for a body that isn't a full central bank. Both powers landed in a single grant, tying digital asset investing and currency issuance to the same institution.

Gelephu now sits at the center of Bhutan's monetary ambitions. The office isn't just being handed a regulatory hat — it's being handed an investment mandate that explicitly names crypto as fair game.

For crypto watchers, the signal matters more than the size. A royal grant that treats digital assets as a legitimate target for a state-linked financial body is a notable endorsement from a government that has kept a low profile on monetary policy.

What comes next is execution. The office has the legal runway to buy digital assets and, eventually, to stand up a currency — but no timeline or details on either have been disclosed.

Bhutan hasn't said how much it plans to invest, which assets it's eyeing, or when a currency could appear. For now, the mandate itself is the news.