Bitcoin despite its agreement with the International Monetary Fund
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El Salvador Increases Bitcoin Holdings Despite IMF Deal
Despite previous agreements with the IMF, El Salvador has purchased an additional 12 bitcoins in the past two days. The country’s National Bitcoin Office announced on January 19 that it had purchased 11 bitcoins worth nearly $1 million, followed by another $106,000 worth of bitcoins the next day.
With these new purchases, El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings have risen to 6,044 BTC, worth around $610 million, at the current market price of around $101,000 per Bitcoin. Bitcoin has hit a new all-time high in the past few days, crossing the $109,000 mark on January 20, surpassing the previous record set on December 20, 2024.
In December 2024, the government of El Salvador, led by President Nayib Bukele, reached a $1.4 billion financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The agreement included El Salvador’s commitment to amend some policies related to digital currency, including making the acceptance of Bitcoin as a means of payment in the private sector voluntary and reducing the government’s role in the Xifo Wallet project.
Despite El Salvador’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund, the government has continued to buy bitcoin. The day after the financing agreement, it allocated $1 million to buy the digital currency. The director of the National Bitcoin Office said that the country’s strategy toward bitcoin has not changed.
It is noteworthy that El Salvador was the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021. So far, El Salvador's Bitcoin investments have generated profits estimated at $179 million, according to official wallet data.
Recent surveys indicate that the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador has not been as successful as expected, as the majority of Salvadorans still prefer to deal with the US dollar. Surveys conducted in 2023 and 2024 showed that a large percentage of the population, up to 92%, did not use Bitcoin in their daily transactions.
In another context, Arkham Intelligence analysis revealed that Bhutan has made significant investments in the field of digital currencies, as it owns digital assets estimated at about 780 million US dollars. This small country has been mining Bitcoin secretly for several years.