{"id":222944,"date":"2026-09-04T19:22:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=222944"},"modified":"2026-09-04T19:22:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:22:34","slug":"el-salvador-isnt-buying-bitcoin-with-public-money-says-imf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=222944","title":{"rendered":"El Salvador Isn\u2019t Buying Bitcoin With Public Money, Says IMF\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

El Salvador Isn\u2019t Buying Bitcoin With Public Money, Says IMF\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

El Salvador has not used public funds to accumulate bitcoin since the International Monetary Fund\u2019s last review of its loan program, the fund said Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a report Thursday, the body said<\/a> that the Central American country had instead received bitcoin from private donations, citing documentation from the government. It added that \u201cno further Bitcoin accumulation beyond the documented donations is expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

El Salvador made headlines in 2021 when it became the first country in the world to make bitcoin legal tender. Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele in 2022 said<\/a> the country would buy one bitcoin per day but it was never clear where the money was coming from \u2014 or if he was actually buying at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Gradually, then suddenly\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/hmdMLRZioh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 3, 2026<\/a>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cDocumentation has been provided verifying that Bitcoin accumulation since the first review reflects private donations and that no public resources were used,\u201d the IMF release said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstandings were also reached on steps to modernize the legal, regulatory, and supervisory framework for digital assets and to further strengthen the governance and risk-management arrangements for public-sector crypto-asset holdings. Going forward, no further bitcoin accumulation beyond the documented donations is expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report added that public participation in the government-sponsored bitcoin wallet has been largely wound down, with majority ownership and operational control handed to a private operator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

El Salvador in 2021 debuted a state-sponsored wallet called Chivo for its citizens as part of its plan to increase bitcoin adoption in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIMF staff thank the Salvadoran authorities for the constructive discussions and excellent collaboration,\u201d the report added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The IMF El Salvador entered a $1.4 billion loan agreement at the end of December but the fund asked for the country to scale back certain aspects of its bitcoin strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Institutions like the World Bank and the IMF have long criticized President Bukele\u2019s Bitcoin law, which also asked businesses to accept the cryptocurrency if they had the technological means to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

President Bukele in 2024 admitted<\/a> that Salvadorans weren\u2019t using the cryptocurrency to buy things as expected, but always boasted that the government was still stacking sats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since launching a crime crackdown to tackle the country\u2019s notorious crime gangs, murder rates in El Salvador have plunged. The country was once the most dangerous place in the Americas but President Bukele is now trying to turn it into a tech hub.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crypto companies like Tether have since relocated to its capital, San Salvador.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This post El Salvador Isn\u2019t Buying Bitcoin With Public Money, Says IMF\u00a0<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Mathew Di Salvo<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine El Salvador Isn\u2019t Buying Bitcoin With Public Money, Says IMF\u00a0 El Salvador has not used public funds to accumulate bitcoin since the International Monetary Fund\u2019s last review of its loan program, the fund said Thursday.\u00a0 In a report Thursday, the body said that the Central American country had instead received bitcoin from private […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":222945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/222945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}