Bhutan's Bitcoin Diet: Kingdom Offloads Another $23M as Holdings Drop 70%

Bhutan continues its methodical Bitcoin decluttering, moving another 319 BTC (roughly $22.68 million) from its sovereign-linked wallet on Thursday. The kingdom's treasury is looking less like a hodler's dream and more like a digital asset garage sale—and the receipts keep piling up.

According to Arkham data, a wallet tied to the Royal Government of Bhutan and its investment arm Druk Holding & Investments transferred the Bitcoin, bringing total outflows since late October 2024 to over 9,000 BTC. That's a whole lot of sats flying the coup, folks.

The March activity alone saw Bhutan's tagged wallet move more than 1,667 BTC (approximately $120 million). This extensive selling has trimmed the kingdom's Bitcoin stash from about 13,000 BTC in late 2024 down to 3,654 BTC in April—a roughly 70% reduction. To put that in degen terms: Bhutan went from Diamond Hands to Paper Hands faster than you can say "block reward halving."

Despite the selloff, Bhutan remains the fifth-largest publicly tracked nation-state Bitcoin holder. The top four spots belong to the United States (328,000 BTC), the United Kingdom (61,000 BTC), El Salvador (7,600 BTC), and the United Arab Emirates (7,000 BTC). Not bad for a country population smaller than most crypto discords.

Bhutan has not publicly commented on the recent disposes, with activity inferred from wallet labels and transaction patterns linked to the government and Druk Holding & Investments. Radio silence from Thimphu, as they say. Nothing to see here, just a small Himalayan kingdom quietly exiting its Bitcoin position like it's trying to forget the whole thing happened.

The kingdom built much of its position through state-backed mining operations powered by hydropower. Officials have framed this as part of a "green Bitcoin economy" strategy—a way to diversify export revenues beyond electricity sales by converting surplus, carbon-free hydropower into digital assets. Very based, very sustainable, very 2021 energy crisis energy. In December 2025, Bhutan unveiled a National Bitcoin Development Pledge committing up to 10,000 BTC (roughly $1 billion at the time) to support the long-term development of its Gelephu Mindfulness City special administrative region. Authorities indicated the allocation would be managed through strategies including using Bitcoin as collateral, low-risk yield-generating instruments, or long-term holding to anchor the new economic hub in digital assets and sustainable finance. So they pledge 10,000 BTC while holding 3,654 BTC. Bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see how that plays out.