Bhutan Disputes $1 Billion Bitcoin Sell-off Tracked by Arkham
Bhutan’s government said Friday it does not recall selling any bitcoin, directly contradicting blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence suggesting the country’s sovereign wealth fund moved and likely sold roughly $1 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) since mid-2025. The dispute pits an official government denial against on-chain evidence that has been widely tracked by cryptocurrency analysts.
No independent auditor has yet reconciled the two positions.
What Arkham Flagged
Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics firm that labels on-chain wallet addresses belonging to governments and institutions, identified a series of outflows from wallets attributed to Bhutan’s sovereign fund, Druk Holding and Investments. The firm’s data suggests those wallets shed approximately $1 billion worth of BTC between mid-2025 and the May 16 report date.
Arkham tracks wallet clusters rather than confirmed legal ownership, meaning its attributions carry analytical confidence levels, not legal certainty. The company has previously identified Bhutan as one of the largest state-level bitcoin holders, a status the country earned through hydropower-backed mining operations in the Himalayas.
What Bhutan Said
A Bhutanese government representative told CoinDesk the country “doesn’t recall” executing any such sales, a phrasing that stops short of a categorical denial.
The statement did not address specific wallet addresses, transaction hashes, or the methodology Arkham used to attribute the wallets. Druk Holding and Investments had not issued a separate public statement as of the time this article was prepared on May 16.
Background
Bhutan began accumulating bitcoin quietly through state-backed mining, a fact that became public in 2023 when blockchain researchers first connected Himalayan wallet clusters to the government.
The country leveraged surplus hydroelectric power to mine BTC without the public disclosure requirements facing publicly traded miners in the United States. At peak estimates, Bhutan held more than 10,000 BTC.
The divergence between Arkham’s on-chain record and the government’s verbal denial reflects a broader tension in sovereign cryptocurrency management: holdings are pseudonymously transparent on-chain, but governments retain the option to dispute analytical attributions without releasing verifiable wallet confirmations.
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What Comes Next
The dispute leaves two open questions. First, whether Druk Holding and Investments will publish wallet addresses to prove the flagged wallets do not belong to Bhutan.
Second, whether Arkham will respond with additional attribution evidence. If neither party produces verifiable documentation, the $1 billion figure will remain contested.
For bitcoin markets, the significance rests on whether sovereign sell pressure of that scale is real or misattributed. A confirmed $1 billion drawdown from a known state holder would rank among the largest sovereign exits since El Salvador began reducing its BTC position in 2024.
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