Bhutan's cryptocurrency reserve has lost more than $200 million in value over the past two months. Recently, another batch of bitcoins was withdrawn from it, and the outflow of coins has continued for the last three weeks, analysts from Arkham report.
The kingdom's coins are stored in a wallet belonging to the state fund Druk Holding & Investments. The country is accumulating bitcoins mined by local hydropower plant mining farms. As of February 13, the kingdom's crypto portfolio holds 5,600 BTC worth $375 million.
In the last 24 hours, 100 bitcoins worth $6.77 million were withdrawn from the wallet to the address of the crypto service QCP Capital. In early February, the government of Bhutan made a similar transfer of 285 BTC ($22 million at the exchange rate at the time of the transaction). A week ago, the government of Bhutan sent 1.5 million USDT to a hot wallet on Binance.
Transferring bitcoins to crypto platforms does not necessarily mean their sale, but indicates active portfolio management. The first cryptocurrency can be used, for example, as collateral. This option was considered in Bhutan as early as last year when, in December, plans were announced to send up to 10 thousand bitcoins from the state reserve for the creation of Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) — a new economic center in the south of the country.
At that time, according to Arkham, the balance of Bhutan's wallet held about 6 thousand coins ($590 million at a rate of $87 thousand). Over the past two months, the reserve has decreased by approximately 400 bitcoins or $215 million. The loss of more than a third of the value is related not only to the withdrawal of funds — bitcoin itself has decreased in value by $20 thousand during this time.
Sometimes Bhutan does sell part of its bitcoins. Previously, it was reported in the kingdom that they sold some coins at market peaks. In 2023, the government sold cryptocurrency worth $100 million to double the salaries of civil servants and prevent the outflow of the population abroad.
