Taiwan’s justice ministry is sitting on 210 Bitcoin, seized from criminals and worth roughly $14 million. Most governments would treat that as a footnote. The Bitcoin Policy Institute thinks it should be a starting point.
A Case Built On Worst-Case Scenarios
In a report published Tuesday, BPI research fellow Jacob Langenkamp made the case that Taiwan should build a national Bitcoin reserve — not mainly as a financial play, but as protection against the possibility of a Chinese military blockade or invasion.
His argument is simple: if China cuts Taiwan off, gold cannot be moved and dollar reserves can be frozen. Bitcoin, he wrote, requires no physical transport and remains accessible regardless of what happens on the ground.
Taiwan’s central bank had already looked at the idea and walked away from it. In December, the bank concluded that Bitcoin was too volatile, too hard to store safely, and too thin in liquidity to serve as a reserve asset.
It pointed to the US dollar as the more sensible option. Langenkamp acknowledged those concerns are real — but argued they can be solved with the right institutional know-how on custody and risk management.
The Dollar Problem Analysts Say Taiwan Is Ignoring
The report’s broader warning centers on how exposed Taiwan already is to the US dollar. At least 80% of the central bank’s reserves are held in dollar-denominated assets, and most of its trade runs through the same currency.
Langenkamp listed several pressures that could erode the dollar’s value over time — rising US government debt, Federal Reserve money expansion, a possible downturn in AI-sector valuations, and shrinking semiconductor revenues.
Bitcoin, he argued, could pair with gold to offer a buffer against those risks, giving Taiwan’s central bank a hedge before other countries make the same move.
Taiwan’s central bank did not fully close the door after its December decision. Officials said the bank would continue testing digital asset technology through a sandbox program, using crypto the country already holds.
The Numbers Behind Taiwan’s Existing Holdings
The 210 Bitcoin figure came from lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun, who disclosed it on social media last year. According to data from crypto treasury tracker BitBo, those holdings — if officially counted — would rank Taiwan seventh among nations holding Bitcoin, just behind El Salvador and ahead of Finland. The country is not currently listed in BitBo’s national reserve rankings.
Whether Taiwan’s government acts on the BPI report remains to be seen. The think tank has no formal role in Taiwanese policy, and the central bank’s position has not changed.
But the report adds a new dimension to the global debate over Bitcoin as a state-level asset — one that goes beyond economics and into the question of what a country does when access to its own money is at risk.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
