A compute project in the Gelephu Mindfulness City is four legal projects at once: a site and power arrangement, a customs entry for the hardware, a tax structure that decides whether mined coins are stock or treasury, and a licensing analysis that keeps the operation outside the financial services perimeter. Basnet Law Pte. Ltd., the first law firm incorporated in the Gelephu Mindfulness City, advises miners, data centre developers and digital asset treasuries on all four. This page explains how those rules fit together and how we take a project to operation.
How we help
- Writing the perimeter memorandum that keeps own-account mining and coin sales outside GFSO licensing, and identifying where hosting, pooling or client staking would cross it.
- Separating the operating company from the treasury company so that mined coins are classified as trading stock or capital assets deliberately.
- Preparing the proposal to the Economic Development Group for a site and long-term lease, and negotiating the lease and power terms as a complete code.
- Handling customs entry for rigs and servers: classification, duty orders, exemption directions and declarations.
- Incorporating through GCRO with a resident director and planning work passes for foreign engineers.
- Drafting hosting, colocation and power supply contracts and the board treasury policy auditors will test.
How mining and data centre law works in GMC, in plain terms
Green Energy and Technologies and Finance and Digital Assets are two of GMC's eight published priority industries. The physical case is hydropower: Bhutan's grid is built on it, and the sovereign wealth fund built a national bitcoin position through state hydropower-powered mining. On-chain analysis reported in April 2026 put those holdings at about 3,954 bitcoin, down from roughly 13,000 in October 2024, and on 17 December 2025 Bhutan pledged up to 10,000 bitcoin from national reserves as a long-term reserve to support GMC's development. None of that is a licence for a private operator; it is evidence that the electricity is real.
Mining, validating and staking with your own hardware and tokens are not listed regulated activities under the Financial Services Act 2025. What can become regulated is what you do next. Selling mined coins for dollars is, on the face of the Act, dealing in virtual assets as principal, and the own-account safe harbour is drafted for securities. A miner therefore relies on the by-way-of-business test, arguing that sales realise the product of a mining business rather than constituting a dealing business, and on the exclusions for group transactions and for suppliers paid by corporate customers. Because that is construction rather than an express exemption, the analysis should be written down and raised with GFSO. The perimeter is crossed when other people's assets are involved: holding customers' tokens for staking or pooled mining is custody, deploying them at your discretion is managing assets, pooling contributions may create a collective investment fund, and quoting prices to third parties is dealing. Public statements about hash rate or energy sourcing are caught by the prohibition on misleading conduct.
Tax follows the ordinary rules. A company pays 15% on chargeable income, block rewards are receipts of the mining trade, and electricity, hosting fees and rent are deductible. The trap is the treasury decision: where a miner that routinely sells its rewards resolves to keep a tranche permanently, the Act treats the appropriation as a deemed disposal at open market value, taxed as trading income and notifiable with the return. Machinery and plant attract an annual allowance of one third, and a taxpayer that satisfies the Comptroller it has installed a computer or other prescribed automation equipment may elect a 100% write-off, though the Act does not say whether a particular rig qualifies. The founders company exemption and the strategic and development company rate are discretionary approvals that name neither mining nor energy, and neither can be granted after 31 December 2030.
Sites and power are matters of contract, not statute. The Economic Development Group runs the one-stop shop for land identification and lease guidance, offering flexible long-term leases, and no GMC land statute has been published. The lease is therefore the complete legal framework for term, use, rent, milestones and termination, and contracts relating to interests in land are outside the Unfair Contract Terms Act 2026, so exclusion clauses bind as written. Grid connection, tariffs and power purchase terms are negotiated with the Economic Development Group; no public source fixes them. Imported hardware enters under the Customs Act 2025, which contains no tariff: duty rates are prescribed by Gazette order and exemptions may be granted by order or individual direction. Every company needs a director ordinarily resident in GMC, and foreign staff need work passes.
Who this is for
- Bitcoin and proof-of-work miners seeking hydropower-backed capacity.
- Data centre and high-performance computing developers.
- Hosting and colocation operators paid in tokens.
- Corporate treasuries and family offices holding digital assets through a GMC company.
How an engagement runs
- Structure. We settle the operating, treasury and site-holding entities, the resident director and the work pass plan.
- Perimeter. We write the licensing memorandum applying the by-way-of-business test and the exclusions to your sales, hosting and intra-group flows, and raise it with GFSO.
- Site and power. We prepare the Economic Development Group submission, negotiate the lease and power terms and incorporate the leaseholder through GCRO.
- Hardware and incentives. We manage customs classification, duty orders and any exemption direction for the rigs, and file any incentive application before the 2030 deadline.
- Operations. We put the treasury policy, custody controls and hosting contracts in place and calendar the tax notifications the structure requires.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a GFSO licence to mine cryptocurrency in GMC?
Mining and validating with your own equipment and tokens is not a listed regulated activity. A licence question arises when your sales amount to a dealing business, or when you hold, manage or pool other people's assets. We document the position and raise it with GFSO before operations start.
What happens for tax when I stop selling mined coins and start holding them?
A permanent appropriation of trading stock to a capital purpose is treated as a sale at open market value on that date, taxed as income of the trade. Deciding which entity mines to sell and which holds, before the first block, avoids an unplanned charge.
Can I write off mining hardware in one year?
The Act allows a 100% allowance, by election, for a computer or other prescribed automation equipment installed for the trade, to the Comptroller's satisfaction; otherwise the annual allowance is one third. Whether a particular rig qualifies is for the Comptroller.
What will power and land cost?
No statute fixes tariffs, lease terms or rents. Each is negotiated with the Economic Development Group and recorded in the lease and power agreement.
Talk to GMC counsel on the ground
Basnet Law Pte. Ltd. is the first law firm incorporated in the Gelephu Mindfulness City. A short conversation early in a matter usually saves time and cost later. Write to basnet@basnetgmc.com or office@basnetgmc.com with a few lines about your plans, and we will tell you plainly what is needed, how long it takes, and whether we are the right fit.
You may contact Basnet Law at basnet@basnetgmc.com or office@basnetgmc.com for any legal queries related to GMC.
