Bhutan's state Bitcoin stash has shrunk dramatically. On-chain data reveals holdings fell from roughly 13,000 BTC in October 2024 to between 3,774 and 3,954 BTC now — a decline of about 70%. Wallets linked to Druk Holding and Investments (DHI) moved between $215.7 million and $233 million worth of the asset in 2026 alone. This week, an additional 250 BTC (~$18 million) and 319.7 BTC (~$22.68 million) were transferred, with some funds flowing to unlabeled wallets and others touching routes previously tied to Galaxy Digital and OKX.
Mining Revenue Has Dried Up for Over a Year
The more telling signal is the absence of mining income. No state-linked wallet has received a mining inflow above $100,000 for more than a year. DHI has not publicly explained the recent transfers. While missing inflows don't prove a full shutdown, the combination of BTC trading at ~$72,938, rising network difficulty, and a post-halving reward of 3.125 BTC per block leaves slim margins for small to mid-sized miners. Bhutan's hydropower-backed 'green mining' experiment appears to have run its course.
Power Market Logic May Trump Crypto Ambitions
Economic realism likely drives the sell-off. Official materials show Bhutan exports surplus electricity to India, generating steady foreign-currency revenue. If selling hydropower yields more predictable returns than mining with it, the drawdown becomes a simple energy-economics decision. Bhutan Bitcoin stops being a crypto story and becomes an energy story wrapped in blockchain.
Institutional Accumulation Stands in Stark Contrast
While the state cuts exposure, corporate buyers are loading up. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) bought 4,871 BTC for about $329.9 million, pushing its total holdings to 766,970 BTC. Spot crypto ETFs absorbed roughly 50,000 BTC in a recent 30-day period, per CoinDesk. That contrast makes Bhutan's drawdown look like an outlier in a bullish market.
Next Clue: Wallets, Not Statements
Bhutan still holds roughly $272–$281 million in BTC — it hasn't walked away from the asset. But the stronger question now is not why it sold coins, but why it may have stopped making new ones. If transfers persist and fresh mining inflows remain absent, Bhutan's sovereign mining experiment could be remembered less as a green success and more as a real-world test of when state-level mining stops making economic sense.