The government of El Salvador continues to accumulate Bitcoin for its national crypto reserve fund, despite an ongoing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stipulating that this Central American country must stop using public funds to purchase Bitcoin as one of the conditions of the loan agreement.
According to data from the El Salvador Bitcoin Office, the country has purchased an additional 7 BTC in the past 7 days, bringing the total holdings to 6,173 BTC, worth over $637 million.
The Bitcoin Office of El Salvador continues to maintain a steady pace of Bitcoin purchases for several months after the agreement with the IMF was signed, with no signs of stopping.
According to executives in the crypto industry, this Central American country is one of the few countries actively buying Bitcoin in open market operations, and El Salvador's national Bitcoin treasury strategy will pave the way for other countries that are also considering strategic Bitcoin reserves.
The amount of Bitcoin held and acquired by El Salvador as of March 13 | Source: El Salvador Bitcoin Office
El Salvador continues to accumulate BTC despite pressure from the IMF
El Salvador signed a loan agreement worth $1.4 billion with the IMF in December 2024. As part of this agreement, the government agreed to repeal the legal tender law and payments in Bitcoin.
The agreement also specifies that El Salvador must reduce its accumulation of Bitcoin, not using public funds to finance the purchase of Bitcoin.
Additionally, the agreement requires the government to privatize Chivo Wallet, which is funded from the budget but is little used by the public.
In January 2025, lawmakers in this Central American country repealed the legal tender law for Bitcoin in a 55-2 vote in Congress, although this did not halt or slow down the process of purchasing Bitcoin.
The IMF has made another demand on the country to stop purchasing Bitcoin by March 2025, reiterating the original terms of the agreement. However, El Salvador's President – Nayib Bukele, has opposed these demands.
Bukele emphasized that the country will not stop buying Bitcoin or slow down the accumulation of the leading asset under pressure from financial organizations.
"No, we will not stop. If we did not stop when the whole world isolated us and most of the Bitcoin community turned their backs on us, then now or in the future, we will never stop," Bukele wrote in a post on March 4 on X.
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