Did El Salvador Really Just Buy $100 Million in Bitcoin?

In brief

Nayib Bukele highlighted El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings on Monday.
The nation’s stockpile notched its largest daily increase since inception.
The IMF has called El Salvador’s Bitcoin purchases into question.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele signaled on Monday that the Bitcoin-friendly nation added 1,000 Bitcoin valued at about $100 million, even as the asset’s price hovered near a six-month low.

“Hooah!” the millennial leader said on X, while sharing a screen grab of the country’s official stockpile, which had increased by 17% from the day before.

El Salvador now controls around 7,500 Bitcoin worth $698 million, according to a dashboard provided by the country’s so-called Bitcoin Office. In September, the International Money Fund insisted to Decrypt that the increases are not purchases but rather internal transfers.

A spokesperson from the Salvadoran government communications department pushed back against the organization’s characterization then, saying Bukele’s Bitcoin-buying activity has continued since the nation committed to scaling back Bitcoin-related initiatives last year.

As part of a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the IMF, the country agreed to make the acceptance of Bitcoin payments voluntary, alongside plans to reduce its role in digital wallet program Chivo, which incentivized new users with a one-time $30 payment.

Only when El Salvador started publicizing its Bitcoin holdings in 2024 did the nation’s stockpile increase by more than 1,000 Bitcoin in a single day. At times, Bukele has announced purchases involving dozens of Bitcoin, but they represent a departure from the country’s typical pace.

In 2022, Bukele said he’d buy a Bitcoin per day. At the time, Bitcoin changed hands around $16,700, following the market-rattling collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

Although Bitcoin’s price has slid 27% from last month’s all-time high of $126,000, traders on prediction market Myriad were split evenly between “Greed” and “Fear.” (Disclaimer: Myriad Markets is a product of Decrypt’s parent company, DASTAN.)

When Bitcoin’s price set a high-water mark, El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings were worth nearly $800 million, but they’ve lost almost $200 million in value since then, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko.

When Bukele shared El Salvador’s official holdings on X last month, a screen grab showed that the country was sitting on an unrealized profit of around $475 million, however, that metric is no longer included in the dashboard on the Bitcoin Office’s website.