Bhutan's Tracked Bitcoin Holdings Fall to 518 BTC as Gelephu Plans Expand

A smaller Bitcoin balance meets a bigger development plan

Bhutan's tracked Bitcoin holdings have fallen to about 518 BTC, roughly 96% below the 13,011 BTC identified by blockchain analytics company Arkham Intelligence in September 2024. The remaining balance appeared in tracking cited for September and early November 2026, as the Himalayan kingdom advanced plans to use cryptocurrency in financing Gelephu Mindfulness City.

The fall puts a large gap between Bhutan's visible cryptocurrency balance and its development ambitions. In December 2025, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck dedicated up to 10,000 BTC to the city, a planned economic hub in southern Bhutan. In July 2026, the city engaged Canadian digital asset manager 3iQ Corp to manage part of its Bitcoin treasury.

The central unanswered question is how the tracked national wallets, the city's allocation and assets managed elsewhere fit together. Public disclosures have not reconciled those categories, explained the full reduction or specified the amount entrusted to 3iQ. The 518 BTC figure therefore describes the tracked balance, while a complete accounting of Bhutan's cryptocurrency assets remains unavailable.

For a country of roughly 800,000 people, the sums are substantial. Arkham valued the September 2024 holdings at about $780.49 million. Compared with Bhutan's reported 2023 gross domestic product of $3.02 billion, that was approximately 26%, a large financial asset beside the value of everything the country produced in a year.

How Bhutan built its cryptocurrency holdings

Druk Holding and Investments, Bhutan's state investment company, developed the Bitcoin operation using the country's abundant hydroelectricity. Mining began around 2019–2020 and expanded sharply from early 2023.

Bitcoin mining uses specialised computers to help process transactions and secure the network. Successful miners receive Bitcoin rewards. Bhutan's approach turned electricity into a digital asset that could be held, transferred or exchanged for money.

Arkham Intelligence explained the origin of the holdings when it identified Bhutan's wallets in September 2024:

Unlike most governments, Bhutan's BTC does not come from law enforcement asset seizures, but from Bitcoin mining operations, which have ramped up dramatically since early 2023.

Arkham ranked Bhutan fourth among government Bitcoin holders on its platform at that time. Its investigation identified several mining sites, including the largest on the grounds of the abandoned Education City project.

The company also described how it checked the physical development against activity recorded on Bitcoin's public transaction ledger:

We were able to corroborate the timeline of on-chain mining activity with time-lapse satellite imagery of facility construction.

The decline unfolded over several stages

Bhutan's visible balance fell through a series of transfers rather than one announced disposal. Destinations identified in transaction tracking included Binance, Galaxy Digital and wallets associated with Singapore trading firm QCP Capital.

The main dates show how reserve reductions and new development commitments overlapped:

• September 16, 2024: Arkham identified 13,011 BTC, valued at about $780.49 million.
• November 2024: More than 367 BTC, valued at roughly $33 million, moved to Binance.
• December 2025: The king dedicated up to 10,000 BTC to Gelephu Mindfulness City.
• March 25, 2026: A transfer of 519.7 BTC, valued at about $36.75 million, went to wallets associated with QCP Capital.
• April 2026: Tracked holdings were reported at about 3,954 BTC.
• July 30, 2026: Gelephu announced its treasury management partnership with 3iQ.
• September and early November 2026: Tracking cited a remaining balance of about 518 BTC.
• November 1–2, 2026: A royal decree established the Gelephu Central Bank, with permission to include cryptocurrency in its reserves.

Arkham's September 2024 figure of 13,011 BTC and the later 518 BTC balance imply a reduction of 12,493 BTC, or about 96%. The remaining tracked balance is approximately one twenty-fifth of the earlier holding.

The November 2024 Bitcoin sale occurred while Bhutan still retained a much larger position. Approximately 12,206 BTC, valued then at about $1.11 billion, reportedly remained after that transaction. The subsequent decline extended far beyond that initial withdrawal.

What the March transfers show

The March 25, 2026 transaction involved 519.7 BTC sent from an address labelled by Arkham as controlled by Bhutan's government. Transaction tracking described the funds as split between two new wallets, with one associated with QCP Capital.

That March snapshot placed remaining holdings at 4,452.799 BTC, worth about $319 million at the prices used then, compared with the 518 BTC tracked later in the year. Another estimate put holdings at roughly 5,600 BTC in mid-2026, illustrating the uneven coverage of Bhutan's wallets during the transition.

A preceding transfer involved 973 BTC valued at about $72.3 million, partly routed through addresses associated with Binance. Together, the stated values of those two March transfers total about $109 million.

QCP operates in the institutional cryptocurrency market, including trading arranged directly between parties. Such transactions are called over-the-counter, or OTC, trades. They allow large orders to be negotiated away from a public exchange's visible list of buy and sell orders.

Wallet tracking gives the public a record of transfers. Details such as the final sale price, settlement arrangements and use of cash proceeds require information from the parties involved. Druk Holding and Investments had not publicly explained the March transactions.

Hydroelectricity helped, but mining required major investment

Bhutan's rivers gave its mining operation access to renewable electricity. Druk Holding and Investments and Bitdeer announced a partnership in May 2023 for a project described as involving $500 million in environmentally sustainable digital asset mining.

The partners planned to increase mining capacity from 100 megawatts to 600 megawatts by 2025. That would represent a sixfold expansion in the power capacity available to the operation.

The World Bank figures cited in coverage of Bhutan's economy put cryptocurrency mining investment at $539 million between July 2021 and June 2023. Spending included imported equipment and related infrastructure. Cheap or surplus electricity was one input within a project that also needed computers, construction, maintenance and financing.

Bhutan's national reserves fell over the same period, from $1.27 billion in June 2021 to $832.9 million in June 2022 and $573 million in June 2023. The World Bank account connected mining investment and equipment imports with pressure on those reserves.

Druk Holding and Investments financed mining investments through loans from the Royal Monetary Authority. The repayment schedule cited at the time called for $224 million in the 2023–24 fiscal year and $315 million in 2024–25. Those obligations help explain why cash generation mattered alongside the size of the Bitcoin balance.

Why replenishing the treasury became harder

Bitcoin's April 2024 halving reduced the reward for producing a block of transactions from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. A halving is a scheduled change in Bitcoin's rules that cuts this reward in half, reducing the number of new coins miners receive for the same successful task.

Mining businesses can face tighter margins after that change, particularly when competition for rewards increases or electricity and operating costs rise. Bhutan also has other uses for its hydropower, including domestic consumption and electricity exports to India.

Tracking described in March 2026 recorded no meaningful inflows above $100,000 for more than a year. Later accounts described mining as having effectively stopped, while earlier explanations pointed to weaker output after the halving and competing demand for electricity.

The practical consequence is straightforward: a treasury becomes smaller when coins leave faster than mining replaces them. For Bhutan, the economics of generating another Bitcoin matter as much as the market price of the coins already held.

Gelephu's pledge relied on keeping assets productive

King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck's December 2025 commitment dedicated up to 10,000 BTC to Gelephu Mindfulness City. The project aims to develop a new economic centre in southern Bhutan and create opportunities for younger citizens.

Officials proposed financing methods that would preserve Bitcoin holdings, including borrowing against them and earning returns from them. Borrowing against Bitcoin means pledging it as security for a loan, allowing the borrower to obtain cash while retaining an interest in the asset.

Such financing creates a different set of obligations from selling. A loan must be repaid, interest must be funded and a fall in the value of pledged Bitcoin can require additional collateral under the lender's terms.

At a reference price of $77,500 per Bitcoin cited in November 2026 coverage, 10,000 BTC would be worth $775 million. At that same price, 518 BTC would be worth about $40.1 million. The difference shows why the accounting of the city's allocation is central to understanding the pledge's financial scale.

Bhutan's reported youth unemployment rate of 17.7% in 2024 gives the development plan a concrete social purpose. The financing choices affect how much money can reach construction, businesses and employment projects now, and how much cryptocurrency exposure the country retains.

What 3iQ was hired to do

Gelephu Mindfulness City announced its partnership with 3iQ Corp on July 30, 2026. The Canadian asset manager was engaged to manage a portion of the Bitcoin treasury using strategies described as low risk and market neutral.

A market neutral strategy aims to earn returns while reducing dependence on whether Bitcoin's price rises or falls. It can combine positions that offset each other's price exposure, rather than relying entirely on appreciation.

The arrangement was also described as including a physical presence in Gelephu, investment in local talent and knowledge transfer. Those commitments connect the financial mandate with the city's ambition to build local capability in digital finance.

The risk shifts when assets move from simple storage into managed trading. Performance depends on the manager's decisions, trading partners, collateral arrangements and ability to exit positions. The financial significance of the mandate depends on the amount allocated and the contractual protections governing it.

A new central bank gains permission to hold crypto

A royal decree issued on the night of November 1–2, 2026 established the Gelephu Central Bank by upgrading the city's financial regulator. Its responsibilities include monetary policy, foreign reserves and supervision of financial institutions within the special administrative region.

The decree was described as allowing reserves to include digital and cryptocurrency assets alongside traditional holdings. It also opened the possibility of a future currency, potentially in digital form, subject to further royal approval.

The bank has discretion over whether to hold cryptocurrency. A future digital currency would require an additional decision. These powers give Gelephu a financial framework at the same time that its Bitcoin financing plans need a clearer accounting.

Bhutan's trajectory also differs from that of El Salvador, whose holdings were cited at approximately 7,800 BTC in late 2026 coverage. Using that figure, Bhutan's tracked 518 BTC amounts to about 6.6% of El Salvador's balance, a reversal from the earlier period when Bhutan held nearly twice as much.

The immediate issue for Bhutan is how its remaining assets support public priorities. Mining investment, loan repayments, city development and treasury management all draw on the same need: turning financial resources into usable funding while deciding how much exposure to Bitcoin to keep.

Key Points

• Bhutan's tracked Bitcoin balance fell from 13,011 BTC in September 2024 to about 518 BTC in late 2026, a decline of approximately 96%.
• Druk Holding and Investments built the holdings mainly through mining powered by hydropower.
• Transfers included 519.7 BTC valued at about $36.75 million on March 25, 2026, sent to wallets associated with QCP Capital.
• The king dedicated up to 10,000 BTC to Gelephu Mindfulness City in December 2025.
• Gelephu appointed 3iQ in July 2026 to manage part of its Bitcoin treasury.
• The new Gelephu Central Bank may hold cryptocurrency in its reserves; a future digital currency requires further royal approval.
• The relationship between tracked national wallets, the city allocation and externally managed assets has not been publicly reconciled.