El Salvador's Bukele Says Bitcoin Purchases Will Continue Despite IMF Deal
The country's recently signed financial support agreement with the IMF includes a ban on El Salvador accumulating additional bitcoins.
Tom Carreras | Edited by Steven Alpher on March 4, 2025, 21:11 UTC
What you should know:
- El Salvador's president said the country will continue to accumulate bitcoins.
- The $3.5 billion IMF deal includes measures on bitcoin, one of which the IMF said would prohibit further hoarding of the tokens by the government.
- “Proof of work > proof of whine,” Bukele noted after the country acquired additional bitcoins.
Under President Nayib Bukele, El Salvador appears to have no intention of stopping its accumulation of Bitcoin (BTC), despite demands from the IMF.
“It will end in April.” “It will end in June.” “It will end in December.” No, it will not,” Bukele wrote on X on Tuesday afternoon. “If it didn’t stop when the world turned its back on us and most ‘bitcoiners’ abandoned us, it won’t stop now and it won’t stop in the future. Proof of work > proof of whining.”
Bukele's social media post came shortly after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released more details about its $3.5 billion deal with the Latin American country. The IMF said the loan package included a ban on “voluntary accumulation of bitcoin by the public sector.”
Perhaps in response to the IMF announcement, or perhaps not, El Salvador announced late Monday that it had purchased 19 bitcoins over the previous seven days, and then added another token to that on Tuesday afternoon.
The IMF news has caused a storm of discontent online among Bitcoiners, including Samson Mow, who has at least previously been close to President Bukele.
“No more #Bitcoin purchases for El Salvador,” Mou said earlier Tuesday. “All purchases will cease in a few months,” he added later, after the country did make an additional purchase.
The government of El Salvador currently holds 6,101.15 Bitcoins, worth around $530 million, with the current Bitcoin price around $88,000.
“This message is not only significant, it is a catalyst for huge change. Thank you [Nayib Bukele],” Juan Carlos Reyes, president of El Salvador’s National Commission on Digital Assets (CNAD), wrote in a post on X, referring to Bukele’s message.
