Bhutan ‘doesn’t recall’ selling any bitcoin, disputing widely-tracked $1 billion BTC drawdown

Bhutan, a small Asian country nestled in the Himalayas and the second nation after El Salvador to officially mine and hold bitcoin, has reportedly been selling its stash.

In fact, according to data analytics firm Arkham Intelligence’s data, the country might have sold $1 billion worth of bitcoin since July 2025.

Wallets attributed to Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), the kingdom of Bhutan’s sovereign wealth fund, have moved approximately $207 million in bitcoin out this year alone to various exchanges and trading firms, per Arkham’s data.

Holdings in the Arkham-tagged wallets have dropped from roughly 13,000 $BTC in October 2024 to around 3,100 $BTC on Friday, worth $252 million as of Friday evening India time. The outflows have accelerated through 2026 to the point that Arkham estimates Bhutan will have sold all its remaining bitcoin by October if the current pace holds.

But officials from the country’s investment unit say they have not sold any bitcoin.

“I don’t recall the last time we sold any $BTC,” DHI CEO Ujjwal Deep Dahal told CoinDesk via email. A separate reply from the division, when asked specifically about wallet movements tracked by Arkham, said only that “our statement stands and nothing to add beyond it.”

DHI did not address the specific wallet movements, did not dispute Arkham’s attribution of those wallets and did not confirm the amount of bitcoin Bhutan currently holds. It did not confirm or deny whether the kingdom still holds approximately 13,000 $BTC (if the sales hadn’t taken place).

Arkham has tracked these wallets as belonging to DHI for years, with no prior dispute from the Bhutanese government whenever sales or movements were published. Arkham said the country has been an active Bitcoin miner since as early as 2019, with the government actively funding at least four known mining sites in the country.

“When an entity sends assets to an exchange or an OTC trading firm, typically the purpose of the transfer is to exchange those assets,” an Arkham analyst told CoinDesk.

“However, once the funds go to a centralized exchange, there is generally no definitive sign that they have been sold, because the exchange’s order books are off chain. Nonetheless, depositing assets to exchanges generally indicates selling activity.”

Arkham told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat last month that all its wallet labels are identified by an in-house intelligence team sourced from a variety of public data sources “synthesized and analyzed with AI, machine learning, and other data science techniques.” The company had not independently confirmed the addresses with Bhutan or related ministries.

Some of the outflow destinations are wallets previously used to interact with Galaxy Digital and OKX, exchanges and some trading firms typically associated with sales rather than internal reshuffling of funds.

As such, a source close to one of the trading firms that received bitcoin from Bhutan-tracked wallets confirmed that no sales have taken place recently.

It is possible that wallets are moving bitcoin, but Bhutan does not consider those movements “selling.” This could include transfers to custody providers, posting bitcoin as collateral, lending arrangements or OTC deals structured as something other than a spot sale.

In December, Bhutan announced a Bitcoin Development Pledge committing up to 10,000 $BTC toward the long-term development of Gelephu Mindfulness City, a new economic zone in southern Bhutan.

At the time of the announcement, that commitment was worth roughly $860 million. Today, with bitcoin trading near $79,000 and Bhutan apparently holding approximately 3,300 $BTC, the kingdom does not have 10,000 $BTC left to commit.

Meanwhile, CoinDesk reported in March that Bhutan may have ceased mining operations entirely, with no significant inflows to its known wallets in over a year.

That absence was unusual for an operation built on the kingdom’s abundant hydroelectric capacity. Bhutan has accumulated coins through mining activities and not open market purchases. It still holds an unrealized profit of roughly $754 million on its remaining position.

But DHI’s Dahal said the country had been “fortunate this year” with early and consistent rainfall.

“(Rain) keeps our hydropower plants running at strong capacity and our mining operations active. All Bitcoin mined in Bhutan is powered by green energy, and we are continuously upgrading to the latest-generation rigs to remain competitive,” he said.

For now, there seems to be more questions than answers between what Bhutan’s officials are saying about their bitcoin position and the onchain activity, raising questions about what is really happening to the stash that the country has mined and holds.