Arkham: Identified BTC Holding Address Worth $740 Million in the UAE, Primarily Acquired Through Mining Firm Citadel's Rewards

BlockBeats News, August 25th, Arkham, an on-chain data monitoring platform, announced on social media that a related address in the United Arab Emirates has now been flagged on the Arkham platform. The UAE's $700 million worth of Bitcoin holdings have been marked on the Arkham platform.

Arkham stated that the UAE is the fourth-largest government entity holding Bitcoin on the platform, with a total BTC holding value of nearly $7.4 billion. Unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, the UAE's Bitcoin holdings do not come from law enforcement asset seizures but rather from mining operations conducted in partnership with Citadel. As of now, they have mined approximately 9,300 BTC and still hold at least around 6,300 BTC.

2pointzero owns 85% of Citadel, with the latter being 100% owned by IHC. Approximately 61% of IHC is owned by the UAE Royal Group, which is controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family.

Through partnerships with the Phoenix Group (a UAE-listed mining company) and the government-owned IHC, Citadel completed an 80,000-square-meter Bitcoin mining facility in 6 months on Abu Dhabi's Al Reem Island in 2022. Satellite time-lapse images of the construction of the mining facility corroborate the on-chain mining activity timeline. On-chain transactions between Phoenix Group and Citadel also align with officially disclosed amounts. Phoenix Group has also been flagged on the Arkham platform, with its BTC holdings valued at $3.2 million.