IMF Claims El Salvador is Not Buying BTC, Only Consolidating Wallets

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a report on Tuesday about its ongoing loan agreement with El Salvador, claiming that the Central American country has not bought any new Bitcoin (BTC) since signing the agreement in December 2024.

El Salvador’s Chivo Bitcoin wallet “does not adjust its Bitcoin reserves to reflect changes in clients’ Bitcoin deposits,” the report read. Chivo doesn’t sell its BTC, leading to “minor” discrepancies that made it appear as if El Salvador’s public sector was accumulating BTC. 

A letter of intent signed by El Salvador’s central bank president, Douglas Pablo Rodríguez Fuentes, and minister of finance, Jerson Rogelio Posada Molina, contained within the IMF report, confirmed the details:

“In line with commitments under the program, the stock of Bitcoins held by the public sector remains unchanged, and we are taking steps to mitigate fiscal risks by reducing the public sector’s role in the Chivo wallet and reframing the Bitcoin project.”

Cointelegraph reached out to El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office and the National Commission of Digital Assets but hadn’t received a response by time of publication.

Related: Pakistan’s crypto minister, El Salvador’s president discuss Bitcoin strategy

El Salvador strikes loan deal with IMF

The government of El Salvador signed a $1.4 billion loan deal with the IMF in December 2024 and agreed to scale back its involvement in Bitcoin under the loan offer.

In January 2025, El Salvador’s legislature revised the Bitcoin laws, making acceptance of BTC as legal tender voluntary, while also agreeing to stop accumulating BTC using taxpayer money.

Despite this, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office continued to claim the government was steadily accumulating BTC, flying in the face of the IMF deal.

This reached a crescendo in March when the IMF sent another notice to El Salvador asking it to stop accumulating BTC under the terms of service for the loan agreement.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele responded with defiance, telling the IMF that the country would continue accumulating BTC daily.

“No, it’s not stopping. If it didn’t stop when the world ostracized us and most ‘bitcoiners’ abandoned us, it won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future,” Bukele wrote in a March 4 X post.

The IMF report sent shockwaves through the Bitcoin community due to El Salvador’s position as one of the leading countries to embrace a national strategic Bitcoin reserve and Bukele’s outspoken stance on stacking the supply-capped digital currency.

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