It has been almost half a year since Bitcoin hit its all-time high. During this half-year of decline, almost no known national government entities holding Bitcoin have sold. However, we have discovered a very interesting pair of opposing players:
El Salvador VS Bhutan
Over the course of nearly half a year, El Salvador's Bitcoin holdings increased from 6,376 to 7,600 coins, while Bhutan reduced its holdings from 6,234 to 4,000 coins.
This selling pressure from the Himalayas is not large, but it is mysterious. Bhutan, a relatively closed Buddhist country located between China and India, first opened to foreign tourists in 1974, introduced television and the internet in 1999, transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 2008, and still officially bans the use of plastic bags.
It is this country that, at its peak, held 13,000 Bitcoins; the current 4,000 coins are the result of continuous divestment. I imagine you may have many questions, but the first one that needs to be answered is:
Amitabha, Bhutanese benefactor, where did your Bitcoin come from?
Hydropower, A Gift from Heaven
As a Buddhist country, Bhutan was once very laid-back.
In 1972, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan proposed "Gross National Happiness." Yes, this now world-famous "Are you happy?" evaluation system was first proposed by Bhutan.
With Buddha in one's heart, Amitabha, money and fame are external worldly possessions. In 2006, in the first "World Map of Happiness" released by the University of Leicester, Bhutan ranked 8th.
But with Buddha in one's heart, one must still live. Bhutan only graduated from the "Least Developed Country" status in December 2023. In the UN's "World Happiness Report," Bhutan's highest ranking was 84th in 2014. By 2019, it had further dropped to 95th.
Every country has its advantages; Bhutan's advantage is hydropower. Located on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, Bhutan has numerous rivers, abundant annual rainfall, and significant elevation drops. Bhutan's theoretical hydropower potential is estimated at 30,000 - 40,000 MW, while the current installed capacity is only about 2,300 - 4,000 MW, realizing only 5-10% of its potential.
In the summer, Bhutan has more than enough electricity. In 2025, Bhutan's peak summer generation capacity was about 3,600 MW, but the corresponding peak summer daily demand was only about 900 - 1,000 MW.
Naturally, 70% of this excess electricity needed to find a use to generate income, so Bhutan sells it to India. Hydropower has理所当然 become the absolute economic pillar of Bhutan, accounting for about 17-20% of GDP, with hydropower exports contributing over 63% of total export revenue.
But this deal with India is one Bhutan is somewhat reluctant about. Since 1961, India has dominated the construction of almost all hydropower plants in Bhutan, using a funding model of "60% grant + 40% loan." Simply put, India provides the bulk of the capital to build the power plants, but the代价 is that you must优先 and sell the generated electricity back to India at low prices.
This model of trading engineering for resources locks Bhutan's economic lifeline firmly into the Rupee settlement system. Although Bhutan holds energy resources, what it gets in return is Rupees, which can only circulate in the neighboring country and are difficult to exchange directly on the international market for the US dollar foreign exchange needed for modern industry.
How to break this impasse?
Turning Hydropower into Bitcoin
The antidote Bhutan found is Bitcoin mining.
Sometime between 2019 and 2020 (when Bitcoin was around $5,000), Bhutan began secretly testing a path called "energy digitization"—using surplus hydropower for Bitcoin mining.
In 2019, King Wangchuck of Bhutan stated: "As a small country, we must become a smart nation—this is not a choice, but a necessity. Technology is an indispensable tool to achieve this vision."
In 2025, Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay publicly stated: "When electricity prices are good, we sell to India; when electricity prices are not good, we keep it to mine Bitcoin. This is very strategic."
Besides abundant hydropower, Bhutan's unique climate conditions, especially the average annual temperature of just 5.5°C in the high-altitude central regions, also provide a natural cooling advantage for mining, significantly reducing energy costs.
Furthermore, the Bitcoin mining industry perfectly aligns with the environmental and religious ethos of Bhutan as a Buddhist country. Bhutan's constitution mandates maintaining 60% forest coverage, which limits the development of traditional heavy industry. But hydropower mining is a "hidden industry" that emits no greenhouse gases and does not破坏 the ecology; using it to mine Bitcoin does not违背 the Buddha's teachings at all. This is in contrast to the troubles cryptocurrency development has encountered in Islamic countries—under Islamic law, financial activities strictly prohibit usury (Riba) and gambling (Gharar). Due to Bitcoin's high price volatility and lack of physical asset backing, some Islamic scholars (like the Syrian Islamic Council) have issued fatwas declaring Bitcoin as "Haram" (forbidden).
Dig dig dig with lots of hydropower. Through Bitcoin, Bhutan found a path for economic development that breaks through the "Rupee blockade." However, how did a relatively closed Buddhist country find this path of breaking through in the modern financial field of cryptocurrency?
Bhutan's "Bitcoin Operator"
Bhutan's Bitcoin mining is not an impulsive move by the King or some狂热 politician, but an "alternative investment" strategy精心策划 by professional technocrats from its sovereign wealth fund, Druk Holding and Investments (DHI).
The current CEO of DHI, Ujjwal Deep Dahal, is the core operator behind promoting Bhutan's Bitcoin mining. He is an electrical engineer with a deep background in the power and water sectors. Before leading DHI, he深刻 understood the advantages and limitations of Bhutan's hydropower resources.
In Dahal's view, Bhutan faces severe geographical and demographic disadvantages ("Geography is a challenge for us, demography is a challenge for us"). He sees technology as the only way for Bhutan to achieve leapfrog development. In 2019, Dahal pushed DHI to开始 secretly invest in Bitmain miners. His logic was very clear: use the "waste electricity" from Bhutan's summer abundant water period, which cannot be exported or consumed, to mine "digital gold" as a diversification supplement to the national foreign exchange reserves.
In a relatively closed Buddhist country, the one who could敏锐捕捉 the historical opportunity of Bitcoin was naturally not an ordinary person, but a technocrat with top-tier international education. Dahal's成长轨迹 is also naturally not one of hardship, but a typical缩影 of Bhutan's elite class. As the child of a high-ranking government official, Dahal enjoyed the best educational resources in Bhutan from childhood and received a government "Elite Scholarship" for study abroad. He received his basic higher education in India早年, then went to Canada and the United States for further study, and even served as a researcher in the SPURS (Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
It was the cutting-edge technological concepts he was exposed to at MIT, combined with Bhutan's local energy endowment, that prompted him to propose the "electricity price arbitrage"构想 of using hydropower for Bitcoin mining to Bhutan's高层 in 2019 when Bitcoin prices were low.
All beings are equal, yet all beings are also unequal.
A National-Level Gamble
Since the goal is to generate revenue, the Bitcoin mined "for free" using excess hydropower naturally needs to be converted into foreign exchange to contribute to the national reserves. The question "Why is Bhutan selling Bitcoin?" has been answered, but we can explore further.
In June 2023, facing a severe crisis of civil servant attrition, the Bhutanese government used approximately $72 million worth of Bitcoin reserves to give all civil servants a 50% pay raise.
On December 17, 2025, Bhutan's National Day. Bhutan made another bold decision: to inject up to ten thousand of its囤积 Bitcoins (an asset worth about $1 billion at the time) as a seed fund for the nation's future into that still-on-the-drawing-board massive special zone—the "Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC)".
GMC's financial model is nothing short of "crazy" in macroeconomic terms. According to reports from Time Magazine and SCMP, GMC's estimated total investment is as high as $100 billion, while Bhutan's GDP in 2025 was only about $3.4 billion. The estimated total investment is about 30 times the country's 2025 GDP.
Even more夸张的是, this mega-project, announced with a preliminary vision in December 2023 and officially started construction in 2025, after more than 2 years, can still only be said to be in the "infrastructure construction phase."
These two actions can be puzzling—明明 having once had 13,000 Bitcoins, why wasn't the earned US dollars used to support other domestic industries, but instead只是 used to pay civil servants, and then spend ten thousand Bitcoins on building a special zone that might not generate any returns for 5-10 years?
Bhutan is also无奈.
In Bhutan, the government is the single largest employer. Due to a weak private economy, the operation of the state machinery relies entirely on the civil service system. However, in recent years, Bhutan has faced inflation and brain drain. Raising civil servant salaries is essentially about maintaining the operation of the state machinery and preventing government shutdown. Bitcoin mining revenue is seen as "life-saving money" to retain the country's core talent—first "stop the bleeding," then talk about "development."
Furthermore, for Bhutan, supporting domestic industries is quite difficult. Bhutan lacks the industrial soil to承接资金. Without infrastructure, without logistical advantages, and with an extremely small domestic market (only about 800,000 people), even if the government撒 several hundred million dollars to the private sector, it cannot凭空变出 a manufacturing or tech industry. The funds would most likely only flow into real estate speculation or become imported consumer goods, further consuming precious foreign exchange reserves.
Therefore, the commitment of ten thousand Bitcoins for GMC seems颇像 a kind of "desperate gamble." GMC is not a tourist destination but a "special zone" located in the southern plains bordering India, planning to establish an independent legal system (referencing Singapore and Abu Dhabi) to attract global capital.
It is like the "Cayman Islands at the foot of the Himalayas." Through cooperation with institutions like Matrixport, it offers offshore trusts, legalization of digital assets, and an independent jurisdiction based on Anglo-American law. The Bhutanese government realizes that under the current systemic and geographical constraints, the prospects for gradual reform remain foggy. To试图 break the单一 dependency on India, this might be the best option they can think of currently.
Although GMC's estimated total investment规模 is as high as a hundred billion dollars, it does not mean the Bhutanese government really has to梭哈 that much money all at once. Their strategy is "build the nest to attract the phoenix"—use Bitcoin revenue and the national sovereign wealth fund (DHI) to complete the first phase of infrastructure construction (e.g., expanding the airport, building bridges), and then attract global富豪 and财团 for subsequent investment by出让特区开发权.
Bhutan is not only "gambling" off-chain; on-chain, their operations are far from simply "mine-hold-sell." Bhutan did not leave all its assets idle in cold storage; it converted large amounts of ETH into liquid staking tokens and deposited them into the decentralized lending platform Aave as collateral to borrow huge amounts of stablecoins.
Earlier this year, Bhutan encountered a perilous "deleveraging" crisis. As the price of ETH fell, the value of its collateral on Aave shrunk, and its loan's health factor approached the liquidation红线 of 1.0. To save itself, DHI was forced to紧急抛售 26,535 ETH (about $60 million) in early February 2026 to repay a whopping $137 million USDT loan. This operation pulled its health factor back above the safety line of 1.10, preserving the remaining position of about 78,245 stETH.
Actually, regarding Bhutan's "gamble," we can trace it back even earlier—because although Bhutan has plenty of electricity to mine Bitcoin, they also need miners.
Bhutan primarily purchases equipment from Bitmain. According to customs records and media tracking, the main imports are Bitmain's Antminer S19 series (including S19 Pro, S19 XP, etc.). After 2023, following cooperation with Bitdeer (founded by Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu), Bitdeer also directly shipped tens of thousands of advanced miners to Bhutan.
Forbes and other institutions综合评估 that from 2021 to 2023, Bhutan's total capital expenditure on crypto mining facilities was approximately $500 million. This directly caused Bhutan's foreign exchange reserves to drop from $1.27 billion to just over $500 million during the same period—a dangerous level.
According to the World Bank's "Bhutan Macroeconomic Outlook" released in April 2024 and the IMF's 2024 Article IV Consultation report, in the 2022/23 fiscal year, Bhutan's current account deficit (CAD) soared to 34.3% of GDP. The World Bank clearly stated—
"A major national cryptocurrency mining investment led to a decline in international reserves and widened the CAD to 34.3% of GDP. In 2022 alone, funds equivalent to about 9% of GDP were used to import crypto equipment."
A country betting 9% of its GDP on Bitcoin might be one of the craziest gambles in human history.
Fortunately, Bhutan's big gamble has passed the painful period. In 2025, as Bitcoin prices reached new all-time highs, Bhutan's fiscal situation improved significantly. According to the IMF's latest "2025 Article IV Consultation Report" released in January 2026: "Bhutan's foreign exchange reserves have strengthened significantly,得益于 reduced crypto mining-related imports, increased remittances, and growth in tourism and hydropower income." Bhutan's CAD is expected to narrow significantly from the peak of 34.3% to 8.62% in the 2025/26 fiscal year. This means the painful period of "buying miners" is over, and they have entered the "output and monetization phase."
As a nation, Bhutan's painful period is over. Then, as individuals, have the lives of Bhutanese people improved because of Bitcoin?
National Fortune and People's Fortune
The "2022 Labor Force Survey Report" from Bhutan's National Statistics Bureau (NSB) clearly shows that the youth unemployment rate in 2022 was indeed 28.6%. In 2025, this figure decreased to 18%.
From the data, the Bitcoin mining industry has indeed somewhat improved the lives of the Bhutanese people. But for Bhutanese people, living in Bhutan still offers little hope.
It is estimated that currently about 66,000 Bhutanese live overseas, the vast majority in Australia. For this small country with a population of only about 800,000, this number is equivalent to nearly 8% of the population.
In comparison, globally, only about 3.6% of the population lives outside their country of birth. In India, this比例 is 2.5%; in Pakistan, it is 2.8%.
It is important to know that in 2025, youth accounted for 45.1% of the unemployed population in Bhutan. This means that the number of Bhutanese living overseas is almost equal to the number of unemployed youth within Bhutan.
Even living in Bhutan's cities does not mean better employment prospects because the cities are more developed. Among unemployed youth, 57.2% live in urban areas.
Every year, the number of Bhutanese students and professionals going to Australia, Canada, and other countries for study and employment grows steadily, a trend that has attracted the attention of high-level government officials. Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay stated that among the 66,000 Bhutanese overseas, many are experienced civil servants, teachers, nurses, and other professionals.
"We cannot ask civil servants not to resign, nor can we prevent people from leaving the country. I cannot guarantee that professionals will not resign, and when they do, they often cite poor working conditions, which may be true."
Chimi Dorji, president of the Bhutanese Association in Perth, Australia, said that currently there are over 20,000 Bhutanese living in Perth alone. He and his wife moved to Australia in 2019; before that, he was a forestry officer in Bhutan.
He said, "Many Bhutanese living in Australia are still seeking permanent residency because they plan to settle down and not return home."
Tashi Zam left Bhutan for Australia with her boyfriend in 2018. When she and her boyfriend graduated in 2015-2016, they hadn't even considered traveling abroad:
"Our initial dream was to find a suitable job and settle down in Bhutan."
For nearly two years, they exhausted all means to find employment but found nothing. Eventually, their families凑钱 encouraged them to formally marry so they could apply for work together.
"Looking back now, our choice was correct. We now have a good income and can also help our family members."
Mining farms are highly automated, GMC is meant to serve foreign elites; Bitcoin is not a万能灵药 and cannot solve Bhutan's severe unemployment crisis. Bhutan jumped directly from an agricultural society to a financial society, missing the manufacturing/service industries that can absorb大量 employment.
This country is soaring in the cryptocurrency field, but its people are still颠沛流离 in real life.
