Is the Bhutan government selling Bitcoin as price settles at a new ATH?

The Royal Government of Bhutan has moved over $23 million worth of Bitcoin to Binance, just as Bitcoin breached its previous all-time high level to trade above $112,000.

According to blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, Bhutan’s sovereign investment arm, Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), transferred 213.5 BTC, valued at $23.73 million, to a Binance deposit address on Wednesday. It is the second week in a row that the nation has made a significant transfer to the exchange, likely to sell.

The transactions came at a time when Bitcoin hit $112,052 after seven weeks of consolidating between $105,000-$111,000. According to Coingecko data, the largest coin by market cap recorded over $60 billion in global trading volume in the last 24 hours.

Bhutan week-on-week portfolio gains

Arkham’s tracking data shows that Bhutan’s overall crypto portfolio rose to $1.304 billion on July 10, up from $1.26 billion a week earlier. The government’s net gain over that period stood at $38.4 million, largely due to a week of bullish market conditions that saw most coins trade in the green.

As of July 3, the government held 11.93K BTC valued at $1.26 billion, with each coin priced at roughly $105,690. By July 10, Bitcoin’s value had climbed to $111,268, pushing the total value of Bhutan’s holdings to $1.3 billion. 

The amount of Bitcoin held is still the same, indicating that while 213.5 BTC was sent to Binance, additional BTC might have been mined or moved between internal wallets.

Other assets in Bhutan’s portfolio include 656 Ethereum, which increased in value from $1.58 million to $1.71 million after prices rose from $2,405 to $2,791.53 during the same period. Bhutan still recorded an appreciation of over $130,000 in valuation without increasing or reducing its ETH holdings.

Several smaller assets in Bhutan’s wallet also registered meager gains. These include AIKEK, whose value rose from $43.33 to $50.68, and KIBSHI, which increased from $116 to $165. BOBO, a memecoin with 69 million units held, gained around $3.60 in valuation during the week. 

The government expanded its mining footprint in 2023 through a partnership with Singapore-based mining firm Bitdeer. Together, they launched a 600-megawatt mining facility in Gedu, located on the grounds of a failed $1 billion education infrastructure project. 

Old wallets move holdings to exchanges: More profit-taking?

The government’s recent BTC wallet activity comes against the backdrop of several long-dormant Bitcoin wallets moving their holdings to exchanges. On-chain data from CryptoQuant revealed that older Bitcoin holdings, dormant for seven to ten years, have started to move, which analysts call an indicator of profit-taking.

Just last week, two wallets from the Satoshi era moved 20,000 BTC valued at $2.18 billion. These coins had not been touched in 14 years. 

Moreover, derivatives market data from Binance showed there was an uptick in short liquidations and leveraged buying activity during Bitcoin’s rally past $112,000. Net Taker Volume measured by a seven-hour moving average has exceeded the $100 million mark.

Much of the trading volume may have been driven by forced market buys after short sellers were liquidated, and their open positions were converted into buy orders that pushed prices upward.

Binance’s perpetual futures funding rate also spiked to +0.01 percent, the highest level seen since late June. The funding rate is the cost of holding long versus short positions in perpetual contracts, and its acceleration on the upside could mean there’s more demand for leveraged long exposure at current market conditions.