On-chain monitoring shows the Kingdom of Bhutan moved a substantial portion of its Bitcoin reserves over Tuesday and Wednesday. Arkham Intelligence reported that the Royal Government transferred an additional $44.44 million in BTC to two unknown addresses on Wednesday, bringing the 24-hour total to about $72.3 million. These transfers were traced to wallets linked to Druk Holding & Investments (DHI), Bhutan’s sovereign investment arm that manages the country’s crypto holdings.
One of the notable transactions moved 20.5 BTC (roughly $1.52 million) to Singapore-based trading firm QCP Capital — a pattern more consistent with OTC selling or structured liquidity management than a simple shift between cold wallets.
Taken together with earlier moves reported by ZyCrypto, Bhutan has offloaded more than $110 million worth of Bitcoin so far this year.
The broader balance history makes the scale of the drawdown clear. Bhutan’s BTC holdings peaked at approximately 13,000 BTC in October 2024, accumulated over several years through state-backed hydroelectric mining operations. Arkham’s latest data indicate DHI now holds 4,453 BTC, a decline of around 65% from that peak.
The dollar value of the position has been hit by both the disposals and the market: Bitcoin’s price has slid from roughly $126,080 at the peak to about $74,000 today. What was once a treasury position worth over $1.5 billion is now on the order of $330 million, reflecting the combined effect of reduced supply and lower prices.
Has Bhutan stopped mining? Bhutan began sovereign Bitcoin mining around 2019, using abundant hydropower to build one of the largest state BTC treasuries as a diversification strategy. However, Arkham notes that the country has not seen any inflows above $100,000 in over a year, suggesting mining activity may have been paused or significantly reduced.
Separately, in December Bhutan pledged up to 10,000 BTC — roughly $1 billion at the time — to help fund the development of Gelephu Mindfulness City, a planned economic hub in southern Bhutan. Whether recent sales relate to that pledge, budgetary decisions, market management, or a change in mining economics has not been officially clarified by DHI or the Royal Government.