Bhutan Slashes Bitcoin Reserves as Mining Crumbles-Grim Times Ahead

by

Bhutan sells Bitcoin reserves amid falling prices, rising mining costs, and strategic shifts toward infrastructure, diversification, and digital asset initiatives.

In the frost-bitten corridors of governance, where every decision is a prayer whispered to coins and climate, Bhutan weighs its digital wealth with the gravity of a man staring into an abyss and discovering the abyss staring back with a ledger in its teeth. Prices retreat like a fugitive, costs gnaw the bones of production, and the state contemplates a shift toward roads, schools, and screens, as if reform could be measured in kilowatts and keystrokes.

Bhutan Moves Bitcoin Holdings Under Market Pressure

According to the murmuring Arkham ledger, Bhutan sent 184 BTC, worth $14 million, on a Wednesday. Earlier still, 100.8 BTC, valued at $8.3 million, was dispatched last Friday. In one week, the transfers total almost $22.3 million-a sum that seems to weigh on the conscience like a verdict pronounced by a tired court.

Bhutan is selling Bitcoin.

– Arkham

The coins, Arkham says, went to the market-maker QCP Capital. Usually such movements carry the scent of deliberate liquidation rather than a mere shuffle of coins in the dark. Analysts, with their brittle optimism, call it orderly liquidation-a phrase that tries to polish a grim engine with a smile.

Related Reading: Bhutan Is Preparing To Start A Sei Blockchain Validator In Q1 | Live Bitcoin News

Bhutan has been treading this slower path since late 2025. The pattern whispers of softer mining economics following the 2024 halving, a winter that doubled the costs of state-supported mining and left the furnace of production sputtering in the cold.

Bitcoin prices themselves have retreated, now hovering near $72,000-nearly 40% off the October peak. The market’s retreat gnaws at profitability and gnaws at the value of reserves, turning certainty into a rumor one can hardly trust.

Arkham tells us the transfers were likely to exchanges or OTC desks, moves designed to dull the shock on the market’s nerves. The kingdom seems bent on orderly liquidation, not a reckless chorus of selling that would awaken every predator in the alleyways of finance.

In 2025 and the first half of 2026, Bhutan’s heavy selling altered its standing among nations. Once the fourth-largest holder, it now sits seventh-a somber postcard bearing witness to the scale of recent reserve reductions.

Even with the sales, Bhutan clings to substantial reserves-estimates range from 5,700 BTC to more than 11,000 BTC. At today’s prices, those holdings are worth between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion-a reminder that fortune and fear often share the same pocket.

Mining Economics Drive Strategic Shift in Bhutan

The pivot from accumulation to sale arises from the growing bite of production costs. The year 2023 was Bhutan’s busiest mining year, yielding about 8,200 BTC. The 2024 halving arrived like a cold door, closing some profitable rooms and leaving others drafty and uncertain.

Even as the kingdom employs abundant hydroelectric power, trade-offs accumulate. The plan envisions mining expansion to 600 MW by 2026, while energy exports to India provide a steady stream of national revenue-two flames in a single hearth, competing for the same air.

As mining becomes more widespread, the electricity battlefield grows fiercer. Policymakers must balance the appetite for digital asset mining with the enduring demand for traditional energy exports. This tension helps explain Bhutan’s patient liquidation strategy.

Diversification also enters the ledger of reserve management. Rather than letting Bitcoin rest as a silent idol, Bhutan uses profits to fund infrastructure, aligning with a grandiose scheme that feels almost like a confession of being alive in uncertain times.

December 2025 brought a royal pledge: up to 10,000 BTC to support the Gelephu Mindfulness City project, a pledge valued at about $1 billion at the moment. The gesture reads like a bold dream and a tremor of fear in equal measure.

Progress in digital initiatives followed. In October 2025, Bhutan released a blockchain-based national digital identity system, a deeper wedging of technology into public life. In December, a gold-backed digital token linked reserves to the blockchain, a shield against the fragility of a single asset and a step toward diversification that looks almost existential in its ambition.

January 2026 saw crypto payments broadened to tourism via Binance Pay, enabling smoother cross-border transactions for visitors. The service economy begins to hum, while the memory of risk lingers like a patient at the door asking for one more cigarette before the dawn.

Read More

2026-02-05 11:43