Bhutan Issues Gold-Backed Visas on Solana Blockchain

• Bhutan now allows anybody to invest $10,000 into its TER token on Solana to receive a visa that allows them to stay and work in the country for 12 months.
• TER launched in December and is backed by physical gold, custodied by a regulated bank and linked to the Gelephu Mindfulness City.

The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan has launched a digital nomad visa that lets anybody live and work in the country for up to 12 months, all done on the Solana blockchain. The new visa specifically targets Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), a special administrative region in the southern part of the country, and is designed to maximize well-being under Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness metrics. To obtain the new visa, applicants must be a professional, an entrepreneur or self-employed in sectors aligned with the city’s tech-forward direction. They then submit the application, paying the city’s authorities a non-refundable fee of $2,800. They must then open an account with DK Bank and make a minimum deposit of $10,000 equivalent of TER, a gold-backed token deployed on Solana. After this, they receive the visa which allows them to live and work in the picturesque nation for up to a year, and is renewable for up to 24 months. The visa waives the previous requirement for work visa applicants to prove that they earn at least $2,500. It also waives the sustainability development fee, which at over $100 per night, had made Bhutan’s visa one of the most expensive in the world.

A sovereign nation is issuing visas backed by tokenized gold on Solana.

The future of Internet capital markets is already here.

— Solana (@solana) February 24, 2026

Gold-Backed Visas on Solana TER launched in December last year as a pioneering token on Solana with sovereign backing, as we reported. The Gelephu Mindfulness City issued the token to bridge traditional value store in gold with blockchain-powered digital finance, fusing Solana’s decentralized network with DK Bank’s regulated infrastructure. DK Bank also allowed investors to acquire the token via the traditional means they were used to without the complexities of blockchain wallets. The GMC board described it as “a foundational step in building a values-driven digital economy rooted in real-world assets and sovereign trust.” By integrating the new digital visa with the TER token, the country is sparking widespread adoption of its gold-backed token on a global scale. Edge City founder Timour Kosters states:

They’re basically using nomad visas to bootstrap adoption of a sovereign digital asset. Definitely a novel arrangement.

Last month, Bhutan announced a new partnership with the SEI Network to secure its blockchain by installing node validators in the Kingdom, as CNF reported. Despite the announcement, SOL continues to underperform, dropping 2% in the past day to bring its weekly losses to 10.5%. It trades at $77. The continued drop has dug away most of the profits that SOL holders had made. Glassnode data shows that only 20% of Solana wallet addresses are currently in profit, the lowest level since late 2023. Long term holders have also slowed their accumulation in the past month as the market sentiment continues to drop.