The Kingdom of Bhutan has secretly developed a series of bitcoin mining facilities, a Forbes investigation has revealed.
Using satellite imagery from Planet Labs, Satellite Vu, and Google Earth, as well as sources with knowledge of Bhutan’s crypto investments, the publication said it found the sites of what appear to be four crypto-mining facilities that have never been publicly disclosed.
The satellite images reveal long, rectangular mining units and data center cooling systems hidden amongst dense forests and mountainous terrain across the Himalayan country. Other images also show high-capacity power lines and transformers running from Bhutan’s hydroelectric plants to the mining sites, Forbes reported.
One site was located near Dochula Pass, a sacred area that has 108 memorial shrines, while the others were identified in Trongsa, a mountainous town in the center of the country, Dagana in the south, and an area called “Education City,” a failed $1 billion government project to revive the economy.
By tracking earth-moving and building construction, Forbes said that work at the sites likely began in 2020.
