Bhutan Sells 70% of Bitcoin Reserve Within 18 Months, Sovereign Mining Experiment Likely Abandoned

BlockBeats News, April 11th, according to Arkham on-chain data, the Kingdom of Bhutan is continuing to reduce its Bitcoin holdings. In October 2024, Bhutan's sovereign wealth fund, Druk Holding and Investments, held around 13,000 BTC. Now, only 3,954 BTC remain, with a market value of about $280.6 million. Over the past 18 months, approximately 70% has been sold off, with Bitcoin worth $215.7 million being transferred out just this year.

At the same time, Bhutan's Bitcoin mining business seems to have come to a halt — on-chain data shows that the last mining income of over $100,000 was over a year ago, and Druk Holdings has not disclosed any related information publicly.

Economic pressure is the main reason. Bhutan conducts Bitcoin mining relying on hydropower resources. When the hash rate difficulty is low and the price is above $90,000, it can still be profitable. However, with Bitcoin currently hovering around $71,000 and network difficulty at an all-time high, post-halving block rewards have decreased to 3.125 BTC. The profit margin for small-scale sovereign mining has been greatly reduced. Analysis suggests that selling hydropower directly to India or others may be more cost-effective than continuing mining.

Bhutan's sell-off is in stark contrast to the direction of global mainstream institutions — Strategy spent $330 million last weekend to increase its holdings by 4,871 BTC, and the U.S. spot ETF saw a net inflow of around 50,000 BTC in March alone. Bhutan's remaining holdings are not even equivalent to Strategy's usual weekly purchase volume.