Proceeds from the sale of bitcoin have paid for health care, environmental programs, and government employee salaries in Bhutan — details that put the kingdom’s latest crypto move in the spotlight.
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A small nation with a big Bitcoin strategy
On Monday, blockchain analytics firm Arkham noted the transfer of 175 bitcoins, worth approximately $11.85 million, from the Bhutanese government’s main wallet.
The funds were transferred to an address created about a month ago, which had already received 184 bitcoins from government accounts. The coins did not move again until Tuesday. No sales confirmed.
But the shipment fits a pattern Arkham has been tracking for months. Data shows that Bhutan tends to load between $5 million and $10 million worth of Bitcoin at a time. The highest level on record occurred in mid-September 2025.
Back in February, a similar move preceded a $7 million sale to Singapore-based cryptocurrency trading firm QCP Capital.
Bhutan just withdrew another $11 million worth of bitcoin from its main holding addresses.
The last time they did this was 1 month ago and they were selling $7 million worth of BTC with QCP Capital.
Bhutan periodically sells its Bitcoin units at $5-10 million clips, especially… pic.twitter.com/tBuz280bBe
— Arkham (@arkham) March 9, 2026
How Bhutan built its warehouse
The kingdom did not buy its Bitcoin on an exchange. He mined it. The state-backed operation began in 2019 and is powered almost entirely by hydropower.
During the summer months, Bhutan’s rivers run fast and full of water, pushing its hydroelectric power plants into overdrive. Instead of wasting this extra energy, officials channeled it into Bitcoin mining.
This strategy produced around 13,000 bitcoins in a few years, making Bhutan one of the most sovereign holders in the world.
Arkham currently has a net worth of around 5,400 Bitcoins – a number that reflects years of cyclical sales. Among the nations, Bhutan is in seventh place. The US is in first place by a wide margin, with 328,372 Bitcoin worth close to $22 billion.
Half of April 2024 hit the profitability of the operation. Mining rewards have dropped to 3,125 Bitcoins per block, raising the effective cost of each coin produced.
Since then, Bhutan has been sold frequently, and some Bitcoin miners around the world have shifted their computing power to artificial intelligence and data centers instead.
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Druk Holding manages the portfolio
All of Bhutan’s digital assets — including Bitcoin — are managed by Druk Holding and Investments, the country’s sovereign wealth fund. The portfolio also contains a smaller amount of Ether and a memecoin called KiboShib, which is reportedly generated by artificial intelligence.
What makes Bhutan’s position unusual is how grounded its crypto activities are in mainstream public finance. The kingdom does not sit on Bitcoin as a long-term ideological pawn. When energy is cheap, mining is when prices allow, sell and use the money to keep the lights on.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
