El Salvador recently bought 12 Bitcoin for its reserves in just one day. This move comes despite a prior agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease some of the country's cryptocurrency policies.
On January 19, the National Bitcoin Office shared on X that they had acquired 11 Bitcoin (BTC) for their Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. This purchase was valued at over $1 million. The following day, they added another Bitcoin for $106,000.
Now, El Salvador holds a total of 6,044 BTC, worth more than $617 million. Currently, Bitcoin is trading around $101,000, according to CoinGecko. On January 20, Bitcoin briefly surged past $109,000, breaking its previous record of $108,000 from December 17.
This new high occurred just hours before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States at 4:00 PM UTC. Last month, President Nayib Bukele's government reached a $1.4 billion financing deal with the IMF. As part of this deal, they agreed to scale back some of their Bitcoin activities.
Changes included making it optional for the private sector to accept Bitcoin and reducing government involvement with the Chivo crypto wallet. However, just a day after this agreement, El Salvador purchased $1 million worth of Bitcoin. National Bitcoin Office Director Stacy Herbert confirmed in a post that the country's Bitcoin plans remain unchanged.
In September 2021, El Salvador made history as the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, following the introduction of the Bitcoin law. According to the Nayib Bukele portfolio tracker, as of January 20, El Salvador's Bitcoin holdings had generated a profit of $179 million.
However, a survey conducted in October revealed that 92% of Salvadorans do not use Bitcoin for transactions. This is an increase from a 2023 survey, which found that 88% of respondents didn’t use crypto for transactions.
El Salvador isn’t the only nation making significant moves in Bitcoin. Bhutan, located in South Asia, has been quietly mining Bitcoin for years. In September, blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence reported that Bhutan holds around $780 million in digital assets.