Bhutan issues 'TER', a gold-linked token on Solana… Expansion of national strategic digital assets

The government of Bhutan officially announced the issuance of 'TER', a digital asset (cryptocurrency) linked to physical gold on the Solana (SOL) network. TER will operate under a government-supported structure and has been presented as a core project to expand the country's blockchain strategy.

According to CoinDesk on the 11th (local time), TER is being issued through Gelephu Mindfulness City, a special administrative zone in Bhutan, and is backed by physical gold. Digital custody will be handled by DK Bank, Bhutan's first licensed digital bank. In the first phase, investors can purchase TER directly through DK Bank.

TER is designed to tokenize gold holdings so that international investors can transparently verify the holding structure on-chain. According to the announcement, TER aims to provide global mobility and digital custody features while offering an experience similar to traditional gold investment methods. The token is issued on Solana to take advantage of trading speed and scalability.

Gelephu Mindfulness City is a special zone for attracting foreign investment, and the Bhutanese government is operating this area as a testing ground for a digital asset–centric economic model. The area is pursuing a strategy of actively using digital assets for national financial reserves and building an innovation ecosystem. The issuance of TER is an extension of this national blockchain strategy.

Bhutan's announcement came shortly after Kyrgyzstan unveiled the gold-backed stablecoin USDKG. USDKG is reported to have an initial issuance of 50 million dollars and is one of the early digital asset projects in Central Asia being pursued under a national supervisory framework. TER and USDKG represent a trend of small countries combining physical gold–backed assets with national regulatory frameworks to build asset-based digital economic models using blockchain.