Bhutan Bitcoin reserve drawdown (2025–2026)

Between mid-2025 and mid-2026, the Kingdom of Bhutan drew down the large reserve of Bitcoin it had accumulated through state-run cryptocurrency mining, in a series of blockchain transfers that on-chain analysts valued at roughly one billion US dollars. Wallets associated with Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), the government's commercial investment arm, fell from a peak of about 13,000 bitcoin to around 3,100 over the period — a decline of roughly 70 per cent — even as DHI publicly disputed that it had sold any of the holding.^[1][2]

The episode drew international attention because Bhutan had become, on a per-capita basis, one of the world's largest sovereign holders of Bitcoin — a position built not by purchase but by mining the cryptocurrency with the country's surplus hydropower. The reserve had also been publicly tied to financing the Gelephu Mindfulness City project.^[3]

Background: a treasury built on mining

Bhutan's Bitcoin position was accumulated quietly over several years through state-run mining operations powered by the kingdom's hydroelectric surplus, run through Druk Holding and Investments. By the time the holdings became widely tracked on the blockchain, they amounted to a multi-billion-dollar treasury — an unusually large exposure for a small economy, and one whose value rose and fell with the global price of Bitcoin.^[3]

The 2025–2026 drawdown

From mid-2025, on-chain trackers recorded a steady stream of outflows from the wallets attributed to Bhutan. By the first half of 2026 the holding had fallen by about 70 per cent, from roughly 13,000 to around 3,100 bitcoin, with cumulative movements that analysts valued near one billion US dollars.^[2][4] Over the same period the wallets recorded no significant mining inflows, and observers concluded that the state's hydropower-backed mining had effectively wound down.^[1]

Official response and disputed framing

DHI did not confirm the movements as sales. Its chief executive, Ujjwal Deep Dahal, told CoinDesk, "I don't recall the last time we sold any BTC," and the institution neither addressed the specific wallet transfers nor stated its current holdings.^[1] The gap between widely-tracked on-chain analytics — which attribute the wallets to Bhutan and read the transfers as a drawdown — and the absence of an official accounting left the true status of the reserve a matter of public dispute.

Significance

In December 2024 Bhutan had announced a Bitcoin Development Pledge of up to 10,000 bitcoin toward Gelephu Mindfulness City; with the tracked holding now below that figure, honouring the pledge from reserves alone would require a change of strategy.^[3] The episode illustrated both the promise and the volatility of a sovereign treasury concentrated in a single, price-sensitive digital asset, and underlined the trade-off between mining Bitcoin and exporting the same hydropower that underpins much of the national economy.^[4]

See also

• Bhutan National Budget 2025–2026
• Jigme Khesar Strict Nature Reserve

References

1. "Bhutan 'doesn't recall' selling any bitcoin, disputing widely-tracked $1 billion BTC drawdown." CoinDesk, 16 May 2026.
2. "Bhutan Offloads 70% of Its Bitcoin Stash as Mining Activity Dries Up." Yahoo Finance.
3. "Bhutan trims Bitcoin reserves as BTC transfers top $40M in 2026." Invezz, 10 March 2026.
4. "Bhutan Transfers Over $20M In Bitcoin, Total BTC Reserves Decline By 70%, Onchain Data Reveals." Crowdfund Insider, April 2026.