The Bitcoin Beacon
The kingdom shifted 175 BTC to a wallet it has used before — the latest step in a quiet, steady drawdown funding its Gelephu megacity.
Bhutan is still spending its bitcoin, one careful tranche at a time. The Royal Government moved 175 BTC — about $11.85 million — to the same bc1q wallet that received 184 BTC (roughly $14.09 million) back in February, according to Arkham Intelligence. The repeat address points to a consistent over-the-counter or treasury counterparty rather than a scramble to sell.
The transfer is one more step in a year-long drawdown. Bhutan has moved tens of millions of dollars of bitcoin through 2026; its tracked stack, which peaked above 13,000 BTC in October 2024, has fallen sharply, and analysts now put holdings near $374 million. This is a sovereign reserve being deliberately deployed, not liquidated in distress.
The destination is a city. Analysts tracking the flows tie the sales to the Gelephu Mindfulness City, the flagship special economic zone on Bhutan's southern border toward which the government pledged up to 10,000 BTC in December 2025. Gelephu is standing up its own crypto apparatus alongside the construction — a treasury role for 3iQ and a licensing arrangement with an exchange — as it opens a digital-asset regime meant to attract capital.
Bhutan's approach is the mirror image of El Salvador's “never sell” posture. Bhutan mined its coins with hydropower — via a state holding company and a Bitdeer partnership — and now treats them the way a sovereign wealth fund treats any appreciated asset: harvest it to finance development. That is a defensible use, arguably the point of building a reserve in the first place. The risk is timing and optics. Selling into strength funds more city; selling a mined national asset also draws down the very stack that made Bhutan a case study, and a rising bitcoin price makes each sale look costlier in hindsight.
Why it matters: the first governments to accumulate bitcoin are now showing what they actually do with it — and for Bhutan, the answer is spend it, on purpose.
On-chain figures per Arkham Intelligence as reported Aug. 2026; holdings estimates vary by tracker. Informational only — not financial advice.
Free. Five minutes. No hype.
Subscribe free