Bhutan’s Bitcoin Hoard Melts as $22M Exit Fuels Sell-Off
Thursday saw additional Bitcoin leaving Bhutan’s sovereign-linked wallet, continuing the country’s months-long selling spree and severely depleting its formerly sizable BTC holdings.
The Royal Government of Bhutan and its investment arm, Druk Holding & Investment, were linked to a wallet that moved 319 Bitcoin, valued at about $22.68 million, according to Arkham data. This brings the total amount of Bitcoin outflows by the government since late October 2024 to almost 9,000 BTC.
The latest move comes on the backdrop of recent gains by Bitcoin amid ceasefire news between U.S.-Israel and Iran conflict. Bitcoin price surged modestly on the ceasefire news despite the ongoing bear market.
Arkham Intelligence, a onchain analytics company, monitored the transfer of funds from a wallet associated with Druk Holding to two other locations. There is evidence that one address has a pattern of transferring money via intermediaries, such as the cryptocurrency exchanges OKX and Galaxy Digital. A second address seems to be an exchange deposit or a new intermediary.
Ongoing Selling Spree
This move is the latest in a string of recent wallet transactions by the Arkham-flagged nation. From about 13,000 BTC in late 2024 to 3,654 BTC in April, according to Arkham Intelligence’s monitoring dashboard, the Bhutan-tagged wallet transferred over 1,667 BTC (almost $120 million) in March alone.
Even though that’s a decrease of around 70% in the country’s Bitcoin holdings, Bhutan is still the fifth-largest publicly tracked nation-state holder, after the US (328,000 BTC), UK (61,000 BTC), El Salvador (7,600 BTC), and UAE (7,000 BTC).
Wallet labels and transaction patterns linked to the government and Druk Holding & Investment suggest activity, however Bhutan has not made a public statement about the recent sale.
Working with Bitdeer, the government of Bhutan supported mining activities that used excess hydroelectric power to increase the country’s bitcoin reserve. The facilities were sponsored and enlarged by DHI, the government’s sovereign investment organization. Bitdeer Technologies was then partnered with to grow capacity. When held at its peak, the hoard was worth a significant portion of Bhutan’s around $3 billion GDP.
Instead of distressed selling, the moves seem to be profit-taking and treasury management. Salary hikes for government employees and other domestic expenditures were allegedly paid for the proceeds from previous sales.