El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bet Swells to $644M as Rally Boosts Sovereign Holdings

Bitcoin’s rally has lifted the value of El Salvador’s holdings as the asset continues to prove itself a savvy investment for Central America’s smallest nation.

President Nayib Bukele shared a screenshot Sunday showcasing how the country’s Bitcoin holdings were worth over $644 million following an increase of 30 BTC last month. 

Though that total has since retraced slightly to around $637 million, El Salvador’s Bitcoin National Office says its stash has ballooned more than $137 million over the past 30 days.

The boost comes as Bitcoin began flirting with its all-time high on Sunday, briefly touching $106,500 before settling to $103,172, according to CoinGecko data. 

El Salvador is Buying Bitcoin Despite IMF Compliance: How?

El Salvador’s Bitcoin accumulation quietly persists under IMF watch. While President Nayib Bukele’s government formally paused its Bitcoin acquisitions by public sector entities to satisfy International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan conditions, the country's Bitcoin Office continues to quietly expand the country’s national reserves. In the past month, El Salvador added another 32 BTC worth more than $650,000, bringing its total holdings to 6,161.18 BTC valued at roughly $584 million, consistent with...

“Bitcoin is rallying due to a combination of macro relief, strong ETF inflows, and growing expectations that the Fed will maintain policy flexibility amid softening economic data,” Bitfinex analysts shared in a note to Decrypt.

El Salvador has quietly continued accumulating Bitcoin, despite securing a $1.4 billion IMF loan in December, which required rolling back public-sector crypto involvement that sought the removal of Bitcoin’s legal tender status.

The country’s Bitcoin Office, technically outside the fiscal sector’s definition, has continued its “one Bitcoin a day” acquisition policy. 

“In terms of El Salvador, let me say that they continue to comply with their commitment of non-accumulation of Bitcoin by the overall fiscal sector,” IMF Western Hemisphere Director Rodrigo Valdes said last month.

Bitcoin-Friendly El Salvador Pitches Tokenized Real Estate 'Sandbox' to Trump's SEC

The El Salvador National Commission on Digital Assets, or CNAD, may let U.S. firms experiment with tokenized real estate in the Central American nation, Erica Perkin, a lawyer at Perkin Law Firm and advisor to CNAD, told Decrypt on Thursday. The prospect was raised during a meeting between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force and CNAD on Monday, which focused on a so-called regulatory sandbox between both nations, according to an SEC filing. Earlier this month, the SEC...

Here to stay

Bukele, for his part, has maintained that the policy is here to stay.

“‘This all stops in April.’ ‘This all stops in June.’ ‘This all stops in December.’ No, it’s not stopping,” he wrote on X in March. 

Vedang Vatsa, founder of Hashtag Web3, told Decrypt that the profits show the potential for digital assets to boost national wealth, but cautioned that widespread adoption remains limited.

“Such ambitious economic ideas work best when paired with broader public engagement and a roadmap toward long-term stability,” he said.

El Salvador Adds 11 Bitcoin to Its Reserves—Despite IMF Pressure to Back Off BTC

El Salvador just added 11 Bitcoin to its reserves shortly after promising to limit its adoption. El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office announced in a Jan. 20 Twitter post that it just added another 11 BTC to its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. As of press time, 11 BTC are worth more than $1 million. The announcement follows El Salvador promising the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it would scale back its BTC adoptionin exchange for a $1.4 billion loan back in December 2024. Discussions around the deal...

Vatsa said while the returns are notable, “financial gains are only one part of the story,” and that the country’s alignment with IMF terms points to “a more measured approach.”

El Salvador now ranks as the sixth-largest sovereign Bitcoin holder, holding 6,181 BTC, trailing the U.S., China, the U.K., Ukraine, and Bhutan, as per Bitcoin Treasuries data. Other countries are watching closely, and some are already taking action.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the former CEO of Binance, said last month that he’s been advising governments around the world, pro bono, on how to build national crypto reserves. 

“We are talking with many countries,” Zhao said, recommending wallet solutions and cold storage setups for state-held assets.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair