Bhutan’s Bitcoin sell-offs hit $200 mln: Is the country letting go of its BTC reserve?

The Royal Government of Bhutan has sold $23 million worth of Bitcoin this week. According to Arkham data, Bhutan moved 201 BTC ($15 million) from its wallets on Thursday.

A day before, it also transferred 102 BTC ($7.9 million).  

In early April alone, the government dumped $40 million in BTC.  A closer look at the balance of its wallets showed that the government has intensified sell-offs in 2026. At the end of 2025, the tracked wallets held 6000 BTC.

As of writing, the stash has dropped by nearly half to 3,220 BTC. In short, 2,800 BTC has been sold off in Q1 2026, worth over $200 million at current market prices. 

In fact, when tracked from its peak holdings of 13K BTC in 2024, Bhutan has sold 75.23% of its reserves. 

Broader BTC holding trend by nation-states

The most intriguing part of Bhutan’s situation is that it has not received any inflows into its wallets. This suggested that it might have halted its mining operations. 

In the past few years, the country leveraged its abundant hydropower to mine BTC that was strategically sold to fund other economic developments. It’s unclear whether it will resume its BTC mining operations if the price surges higher. 

Despite Bhutan’s sell-off spree, BTC held by countries has steadily risen from 515K BTC in last October to 649.8K BTC as of May 2026—that’s a 26% rise in accumulation spree by nation-states. 

Even so, the broader impact on BTC price was still unclear. Ahead of the historical summer lull, the overall demand dynamics still warned of a potential leg down. 

According to CryptoQuant, the Spot market demand has contracted further while the perpetual futures rise. This setup, the analytics firm added, mirrored the 2022 pattern, which coincided with another leg down for BTC price.  

If the trend repeats and the summer lull further dents the Spot demand, then BTC may take a little longer to flip the current bear market phase to an early bull market structure. 

Final Summary

• Bhutan sold another $23 million BTC, extending its 2026 sell-off to +$200 million and bringing overall holdings down by 75% from its peak of 13K coins. 
• The move contrasts with a 26% increase in accumulation by nation-states despite the risk of BTC slipping lower again.