Bhutan has sold more than $110 million worth of Bitcoin in 2026, cutting its sovereign BTC holdings by about 65% from the peak. The sales have been carried out by Druk Holding & Investments, the state investment arm managing the country’s digital asset reserves, pointing to a clear shift away from mining-led accumulation and toward steady liquidation.
973 BTC moved on March 17–18, with flows to QCP Capital and Binance
The largest disclosed transfer came on March 17 and 18, when Druk Holding & Investments sent 973 BTC across multiple addresses, valued at roughly $72.3 million. One recipient was Singapore-based trading firm QCP Capital, which suggests at least part of the transaction was structured through OTC channels rather than being dumped directly onto the open market. Another portion was routed to Binance hot wallets.
The article describes Bhutan’s selling pattern as disciplined rather than abrupt. Typical sales have been executed in $5 million to $10 million clips, with larger tranches appearing when market conditions allow. Against that backdrop, this week’s $72.3 million transfer stands out in both size and timing.
State Bitcoin reserves dropped from about 13,000 BTC to roughly 5,400 BTC
Bhutan’s Bitcoin strategy dates back to 2019, when the country quietly began mining BTC with surplus hydropower from Himalayan rivers. That gave it access to a very low marginal energy cost base. At the peak, Bhutan held about 13,000 BTC, worth more than $1.4 billion at the time, a figure that represented over 40% of the country’s GDP.
Those holdings have now declined to around 5,400 BTC, valued at about $374 million based on the figures cited in the source material. The change marks a sharp reduction in Bhutan’s sovereign Bitcoin exposure, and the drawdown has continued through 2026.
On-chain records indicate mining activity may have largely stopped
Arkham Intelligence flagged another detail with broader significance: Bhutan has not recorded a Bitcoin inflow larger than $100,000 in more than a year. That points to mining activity being halted or severely reduced. The country appears to have moved from accumulating and holding BTC to monetizing existing reserves.
No official explanation was given in the source material. Analysts cited there pointed to weaker mining economics after the April 2024 halving, higher operating costs, and competing demands on Bhutan’s hydropower infrastructure. Taken together, those pressures may have made the earlier mining-based accumulation model harder to sustain.
Recurring sovereign sales add a persistent source of supply
For the broader Bitcoin market, sustained sovereign selling at this scale matters. The source notes that government-linked liquidations tend to be less sensitive to short-term price swings and can recur over time. That makes them different from retail flows or ordinary institutional repositioning.
With macro conditions still fragile, fear sentiment elevated, and ETF flows having recently reversed, Bhutan’s steady disposals add another structural stream of supply that the market has to absorb.