Bhutan, the Himalayan kingdom renowned for its happiness index, has seen its Bitcoin holdings surge to over $1 billion as the crypto market rallies.

Arkham, in data shared via X on Nov. 11, revealed that the Royal Government of Bhutan’s total Bitcoin (BTC) holdings had surpassed the $1 billion mark. The blockchain intelligence and analytics platform’s post came as the flagship cryptocurrency soared amid massive bullish momentum.

Bhutan’s foray into crypto isn’t new, with the South Asia country having invested millions of dollars in digital assets before. The country also sought partnerships with Bitcoin miners and in May 2023, allocated 5% of its gross domestic product on mining the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.

In September this year, Bhutan’s BTC holdings increased to over 13,000 bitcoins with the total value at the time around $750 million. While the figure was much lower than huge holdings of the United States, China and the United Kingdom, Bhutan held more than El Salvador. Notably, El Salvador is the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

According to Arkham, Bhutan now holds 12,568 BTC, valued at more than $1 billion as Bitcoin’s price crossed the $82,000 level. The current value of Bhutan’s BTC holdings stands at $1.08 billion.

This figure could rise further if Bitcoin’s price continues its upward momentum, potentially exceeding $86,000 amid market enthusiasm.

Bhutan’s strategy contrasts with that of Germany, which sold its entire 50,000 Bitcoin holdings earlier this year, contributing to selling pressure on BTC.

Additionally, former U.S. President Donald Trump pledged during his campaign to never sell U.S. Bitcoin holdings, vowing instead to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Espresso, a blockchain project focused on cross-chain composability and backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has announced that its confirmation layer is now live on mainnet.

The launch follows two years of research and development, five testnets, and integration plans with more than 20 chains. This milestone marks significant progress for the team as they work towards “making Ethereum (ETH) composable again,” the Espresso Systems team said in the announcement.

Espresso notes that its confirmation layer provides the infrastructure for chains to interact quickly and reliably, allowing rollups to achieve synchronous composability. This layer enables two composable chains to confirm their respective state transitions by reading each other’s transaction data.

“To achieve synchronous composability, chains need a shared source of truth they can use to quickly and reliably confirm the state transitions of other chains,” Espresso wrote.

According to the Espresso team, several ecosystem partners are prepared to integrate the confirmation layer. These partners include bridges, chains, stack providers, and Rollups-as-a-service (also known as RaaS) platforms.

Specific partners include Linux-powered rollups platform Cartesi, modular zero-knowledge stack chains Airchains, and Arbitrum creators OffChain Labs. Additional partners are bridge platform Across Protocol and RaaS provider AltLayer.

Espresso plans to roll out the mainnet in phases, gradually deploying functionality, onboarding launch partners, and decentralizing the node operator set. A roadmap outlines the main components scheduled for release throughout 2025.

The Espresso team raised $28 million in a series B round in March, led by VC platform a16z Crypto.

Republican Mike Collins, re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, holds Ethereum.

Collins disclosed an investment in Ethereum (ETH) worth nearly $80,000, according to the platform Quiver Quantitative. The platform, which tracks investment purchases and trades of key public figures, shared this via a post on X on Nov. 8.

As well as Ethereum, the lawmaker has reportedly also purchased $15,000 worth of Aerodrome (AERO). Aerodrome is an automated market maker and decentralized exchange that functions as the central liquidity hub for Base, a layer-2 network on Ethereum launched by Coinbase.

Rep. Collins disclosed the ETH investment just three days after Donald Trump resoundingly won the U.S. election to send crypto skyrocketing. Ethereum price rose alongside Bitcoin (BTC) as sentiment flipped extremely bullish following Trump’s victory.

Bitcoin broke to a new all-time high above $76k while the price of ETH rose to highs of $2,957 on Nov. 8.

However, the native token of the smart contracts platform that’s the largest home of decentralized finance protocols, has yet to rally as BTC has. ETH is still nearly 40% off its ATH above $4.8k reached in May 2021 and has yet to master a fight back to reclaim its year-to-date high above $4k reached in March.

While not the first Congressman to disclose they hold cryptocurrency as part of their portfolio, Collins’ move suggests a likely new trend as the crypto industry lays a mark on the U.S. legislative map with the highest number of pro-crypto elected candidates.

Sentiment for the U.S. crypto market is also largely positive as the industry looks to put behind it the negative approach of regulation by enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC, under Chair Gary Gensler, has over the past four years espoused a crackdown that critics say threatened to pull the U.S. to the back of the line in terms of crypto and blockchain innovation.

Trump promised to fire Gensler immediately he took office.