A wallet tagged as belonging to Bhutan's Druk Holdings opened a 117K ETH position on Aave, built through borrowing and buying more ETH.A wallet tagged as belonging to Bhutan's Druk Holdings opened a 117K ETH position on Aave, built through borrowing and buying more ETH.

A wallet linked to Bhutan's Druk Holdings has built a 117K ETH position on Aave

2026/01/20 04:40
3 min read

Druk Holdings, the investment company of the Royal Government of Bhutan, is actively trading ETH. Wallets potentially linked to the holding are building a large ETH leveraged position. 

Wallets identified as possibly belonging to Druk Holdings have started building a leveraged position on ETH. Analysts noted Bhutan-related addresses withdrew 42K ETH from Binance, along with $54M USDT. 

The wallets then bought more ETH and deposited it on Aave, borrowing more USDT. The loan was used to acquire more ETH. The address is tagged as a whale wallet, possibly linked to Druk Holdings. Arkham tracked the entity twice, with one wallet not tagged as belonging to the Royal Government of Bhutan. 

In total, the wallets built a 117K ETH position, depending on the positive performance of the asset. Lending ETH to borrow more stablecoins has been used for more exposure during the bull market, but may expose some wallets to liquidations in a downturn. 

Druk Holdings expands ETH exposure

ETH was a relatively small holding in the portfolio of the Royal Government of Bhutan. The Government’s known wallets hold a minimal remaining balance of 17.695 ETH. Until recently, most ETH has been sitting idle in Bhutan’s wallets. 

The Royal Government of Bhutan held 3,000 ETH in the summer of 2025, later divesting the holdings. Some of the ETH initially held idly was staked in several deposits. The Royal Government of Bhutan also accelerated its acquisition of ETH from September 2025 onward.

The Druk Holdings entity has already accrued a small portfolio valued at over $458K, with most in the form of AESTHWETH, a form of wrapped ETH on Aave. In total, the entity’s wallet made 35 transactions to Aave, moving $735M over time. The entity also holds $275.6M on Lido. 

The entity funded its wallets over the weekend and expanded the leveraged position on Monday. If the wallet is proven to belong to Druk Holdings, this would be one of the first leveraged positions on ETH taken by a state entity. In total, the entity’s wallet made 35 transactions to Aave, moving $735M over time. 

In late 2025, Bhutan also introduced an Ethereum-based national identity system, inviting Vitalik Buterin to launch the project.

Bhutan is more active with its ETH treasuries

The flagged entity has significant wrapped ETH activity on Aave and Lido. Unlike the BTC treasury, ETH holdings allow for passive income and potential passive income. 

In the past months, Bhutan’s known wallets moved both ETH and BTC, currently holding around $556M, down from over $1B. Some of the BTC was moved to new addresses over time for security purposes.

The ETH holdings have not been sold on the open market; instead, they are making use of the existing DeFi ecosystem. At the current ETH price range above $3,200, most of the positions on Aave are liquidatable at around $1,400 per ETH.

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