EL SALVADOR – Nayib Bukele posted a screenshot revealing a “big chunk” of the country’s bitcoin stash as the asset’s price has soared
El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele announced that his Central American country, the first in the world to make bitcoin legal tender, was transferring “a big chunk” of its bitcoin holdings to cold storage. In doing so, Bukele posted a screenshot showing the country had 5,689 bitcoin, valued at $406 million at the time of posting.
“You can call it our first bitcoin piggy bank,” Bukele added. “It’s not much, but it’s honest work.”
Blockchain data shows that the majority of El Salvador’s bitcoin holdings are routing through the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Bitfinex. yesterday morning, El Salvador’s bitcoin treasury grew to 5,689.7 bitcoin, valued at approximately $415 million.
Since his 2021 decision to make bitcoin legal tender, Bukele has trumpeted the world’s leading digital asset, despite repeatedly weathering criticism at home and abroad for his embrace of digital currencies.
The International Monetary Fund, for instance, exhorted El Salvador to remove bitcoin’s status as legal tender when it was negotiating financial assistance.
“Given the legal risks, fiscal fragility and largely speculative nature of crypto markets, the (Salvadoran) authorities should reconsider their plans to expand government exposures to bitcoin,” the IMF said last February.
The international body also underlined that bitcoin’s benefits “have not materialized” in the country, and that it was paramount that the government provide “greater transparency” over San Salvador’s bitcoin transactions and the status of the government-run bitcoin-wallet known as Chivo.
Since his successful re-election this year, Bukele has doubled down on his support for bitcoin, pointing out that critics had assailed the country’s investment strategy during the bitcoin bear market and collapse of FTX in November 2022. However, with the debut of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and bitcoin’s soaring valuation in 2024, Bukele said his country was among those celebrating their unrealized profit on their bitcoin holdings. (The Street)…[+]