I noticed an interesting pattern in the transaction chain — it seems Bhutan is systematically selling off its Bitcoin reserves. Over the weekend, the royal government transferred 175 BTC worth about $11.85 million, and in February, they were even more active: around $30.7 million in several transactions. In total, roughly $42.5 million was withdrawn in the first half of the year.

What’s interesting is that this isn’t panic selling, but appears to be planned treasury management. Transfers are going to the same counterparties, volumes are stable, and there’s no correlation with price surges. Bhutan mined coins on hydroelectric power plants almost for free, so each sale is pure profit regardless of market prices.

But the reserve history tells us about the scale. The peak was at the end of 2024 — about 13,000 BTC accumulated over years of mining. Now, approximately 5,400 remain. That’s a 58% decrease in coin quantity. In dollars, it’s even worse — a position that was worth over $1.5 billion at its peak is now valued at around $374 million with the current BTC price near $72,760.

The December announcement about Ghelfa Mindfulness City and the promise to hold up to 10,000 BTC now looks interesting in light of these sales. It seems Bhutan is simply optimizing its portfolio ahead of major investments in development. Normal treasury work, but the scale of sales is impressive.