Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform, is going to strengthen its business by opening an office in Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), a Special Administrative Region designed for digital innovation and sustainable economic growth.
The announcement on February 24, 2026, said that GMC will expand by recruiting a team in Bhutan and by building analytical infrastructure on the ground. This will give those in the region’s developing digital asset field access to blockchain data and market analytics. The partnership aligns with GMC’s plan to create a credible, institutionally aligned ecosystem grounded in openness and good governance.
Alex Svanevik, the CEO and co-founder of Nansen, talked about how special the project is. He said that GMC stood out because it was forward-thinking, even though the company still has its headquarters in Singapore. “Most crypto-friendly jurisdictions are optimising for what exists today.”
Bhutan is creating something very different: an economic zone based on values, with digital assets built in from the start rather than added later. GMC has crypto in its strategic reserves, a forward-thinking regulatory framework, and a strong sense of sovereignty. That’s not common. We want to be the first in that ecosystem.
Gelephu Mindfulness City is a Special Administrative Region in southern Bhutan that was announced in 2023. It is meant to be a new center of economic activity. It prioritizes creating high-value jobs and attracts enterprises from fields including finance, green energy, technology, healthcare, and agriculture.
The area has flexible rules for fintech and crypto enterprises, combining Bhutanese ideals of mindfulness and environmental harmony with new ideas.
Digital assets are at the heart of GMC’s growth. Bhutan promised to sell up to 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from its national assets in December 2025 to fund infrastructure and long-term growth. The government is among the world’s top sovereign Bitcoin holders, with reserves of more than 11,000 BTC. These were originally built to turn extra electricity into cash.
This isn’t Nansen’s first big relationship in this area. Cumberland DRW, a market maker, inked a memorandum to promote custody, tokenisation, institutional liquidity, sustainable mining, and stablecoin infrastructure as part of a previous partnership.
Nansen, an AI-native platform that tracks hundreds of millions of labelled blockchain addresses across various networks, wants to make onchain activity more visible. Hiring locally will help the team develop in a meaningful way, and more information on roles and setup should be available soon.
The growth shows Bhutan’s planned effort to use blockchain technology in a way that lasts. Druk Holding and Investments are among the groups leading the kingdom’s crypto activities. Their main goals are to diversify the economy while keeping long-term value and national priorities.
This relationship makes GMC a stronger digital asset hub backed by a government, bringing in analytics experts to help people make informed decisions and to support ecosystem growth.
