Bitcoin Rally Propels El Salvador's Holdings Into Profit, Says President

By Stephen Graves

Bitcoin's rally to an 18-month high over $42,000 has pushed El Salvador's BTC buys into the black, said the country's president Nayib Bukele.

Posting on Twitter, Bukele announced that at Bitcoin's current market price, the country would make a profit of around $3.6 million were it to sell its holdings.

"Of course, we have no intention of selling; that has never been our objective," Bukele added, noting that the country is "fully aware that the price will continue to fluctuate in the future," and that its long-term strategy remains unaffected.

Bukele also used his tweet to lambast critics in the media, pointing to, "literally thousands of articles and hit pieces that ridiculed our supposed losses," and demanding that they "report this new reality with the same intensity they reported the previous one."

Bitcoin and El Salvador

In June 2021, Bukele announced that BTC would become legal tender in El Salvador, with the country's Bitcoin Law coming into effect in September.

At the same time, El Salvador began purchasing Bitcoin for its reserves, as a state-wide hedge against inflation to offset the country's reliance on U.S. dollar remittances. In November 2022, Bukele ramped up the rate of the country's purchases to one Bitcoin a day.

El Salvador's embrace of BTC has proved controversial at home and abroad, with the passing of the law greeted by protests, while everyone from university professors to U.S. lawmakers castigated Bukele's "careless gamble."

Bukele has faced down critics, hiring "The Bitcoin Standard" author Saifedean Ammous as an economic adviser. And he has reasons to be cheerful; El Salvador didn't default on its massive national debts last year, with the country’s bonds affording investors handsome returns.

While it's challenging to determine exactly how many Bitcoin the country has purchased for its reserves, the NayibTracker website, which tracks the country's Bitcoin purchases based on Bukele's tweets, reports that since the president took to social media to make his celebratory post, the country's Bitcoin buys have slipped back into the red again.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

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