Bhutan's state investment vehicle, Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), transferred 250 BTC on April 13, according to wallet tracking data published by Arkham Intelligence and reported by The Block. The transaction is the latest in an 18-month liquidation that has drawn down the country's Bitcoin reserves by roughly 73% from their October 2024 peak of approximately 13,000 BTC.

Current estimated holdings sit between 3,500 and 3,700 BTC, worth roughly $260 to $275 million at today's price of approximately $74,338 per coin.

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The scale of the retreat

At the height of Bitcoin's 2024 bull cycle, when the asset briefly traded above $119,000, Bhutan's stack was worth somewhere between $1.55 billion and $1.88 billion. For a country with a population under 800,000 and a GDP of around $3 billion, that figure was remarkable. Because DHI's Bitcoin was mined rather than purchased on open markets, its effective cost basis is essentially zero, meaning every sale at any positive price represents near-pure profit for the national treasury and sets Bhutan apart structurally from sovereign buyers like El Salvador or MicroStrategy. The portfolio has since contracted sharply, a function of both active selling and Bitcoin's own price decline from its peak.

The pace of those sales has increased considerably. Early 2026 transfers ran in the $5 million to $15 million range per month. By March, DHI was moving $35 million to $45 million in single weekly transactions. The largest single transfer of the year came in at 595.8 BTC, worth approximately $44.4 million at the time of the move. To illustrate the asymmetry between sovereign sellers and institutional accumulators at this point in the cycle: according to CoinDesk, Strategy purchased 4,871 BTC in a single five-day stretch, more than Bhutan's entire remaining holdings.

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How the BTC is being sold

Rather than routing Bitcoin through public exchange order books, DHI has repeatedly transacted with QCP Capital, a Singapore-based institutional trading firm. According to CoinDesk, citing on-chain data, at least three separate transfers to QCP in 2026 totaled around $16.6 million.

This pattern points to a structured over-the-counter arrangement, where large blocks of Bitcoin are sold privately to minimize market impact. CoinDesk described the relationship in March as consistent with a structured over-the-counter selling arrangement.

On-chain records carry another significant signal: no new Bitcoin inflows above $100,000 have reached DHI wallets in more than a year. Bhutan built its reserves by running a state-owned Bitcoin mining operation powered by surplus hydroelectric energy, a strategy that effectively produced BTC at near-zero marginal cost. The absence of fresh inflows strongly suggests that mining program has been suspended or shut down entirely. That outcome reflects structural pressures that have reshaped the mining industry broadly: the April 2024 halving cut block rewards to 3.125 BTC, network difficulty has since reached all-time highs, and ASIC hardware depreciation compounds with each successive difficulty adjustment, eroding margins for all but the most efficient operators. DHI has not responded to press inquiries on either the transfers or the mining status.

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The Gelephu pledge problem

In December 2025, DHI announced a commitment of up to 10,000 BTC to help capitalize the Gelephu Mindfulness City, a special economic zone in southern Bhutan designed around wellness tourism, green energy, finance, technology, and agriculture. The pledge was framed as capital preservation through collateralized lending and yield strategies rather than direct liquidation, positioning Bitcoin as a source of structured yield for the project rather than a direct mechanism for infrastructure financing.

Current holdings of roughly 3,700 BTC make that 10,000 BTC target mathematically unreachable without reversing the entire drawdown. The gap between the pledge and the actual reserve sits at approximately 6,300 to 6,500 BTC. Whether that signals a formal revision to the Gelephu funding plan or reflects aspirational language that was never fully backed by committed reserves remains unclear. Separately, and in reference to the broader global pattern of sovereign Bitcoin liquidations, an unnamed analyst quoted by CoinDesk in early April observed: "Those who rushed into bitcoin over the past two years are now heading for the exits and it's not a great sign for the market."

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Regional implications

Bhutan's exit carries practical lessons for the wider South Asian region.

The electricity that once fed DHI's mining rigs is reportedly now being redirected toward export agreements with India, according to CoinDesk, representing a trade of volatile crypto revenue for stable government-to-government power contracts. India's relevance here is primarily structural: as the recipient of Bhutanese hydropower exports, it stands to benefit directly from the reallocation of that energy capacity, though public reporting does not establish that Indian policymakers have been actively monitoring DHI's Bitcoin strategy as such.

The contrast with Pakistan is notable. Islamabad announced a government-led Strategic Bitcoin Reserve earlier in 2026, moving in the opposite direction just as Bhutan is winding down. The two trajectories may sharpen the regional debate on sovereign Bitcoin exposure throughout the year.

For African nations with significant hydropower surplus, particularly Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia, the Bhutan case demonstrates both sides of the equation. Sovereign mining from zero-cost energy can generate real reserves. The Bhutan experience also shows those reserves can be liquidated faster than they are accumulated if no long-term policy framework is in place.

DHI has issued no public statement on its selling timeline, its mining status, or the current standing of the Gelephu BTC pledge. Until the government speaks, on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence and the reporting that aggregates it remain among the most reliable indicators of where the country's Bitcoin strategy is headed.