24 July 2026
The El Salvador government is continuing to expand its Bitcoin holdings despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund that it could imperil its US$1.4bn programme with the multilateral.
The National Bitcoin Office stated that the reserve was more than 7,715 BTC on 15 July, worth US$489.06mn. Public records suggest that the government is buying one Bitcoin a day at prices between US$61,840 and US$64,492.
“Perhaps we will all have the opportunity to buy Bitcoin at a discount,” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted on X.
This still represents a substantial profit for the country as according to data from tracking firm DropsTab, more than US$423mn of public funds has been used to purchase Bitcoin.
How Bukele manages to soothe the IMF remains to be seen. The Extended Fund Facility (EFF) he signed with the institution had a stipulation that El Salvador scaled back its exposure to Bitcoin. It required the reserve to remain unchanged and demanded that the Legislative Assembly made merchant acceptance of Bitcoin voluntary, not obligatory.
El Salvador did ban tax payments via Bitcoin, liquidated the Fidebitcoin trust, disclosed public-sector wallet addresses and adopted a plan to end public participation in the Chivo digital wallet. However, the EFF prohibits the accumulation of Bitcoin with public funds.
According to Max Keiser, El Salvador’s chief Bitcoin advisor, the country aims to accumulate around 20,000 BTC. A three fold increase in its holdings would require serious negotiations with the IMF.
Fitch Ratings describes the Extended Fund Facility as having “stalled” and the second and third programme reviews set for September 2025 and March 2026 have not been completed. This has delayed access to disbursements which El Salvador needs to shore up public spending and especially its debt to pensions which stands at US$11.57bn as of May 2026.
Fitch affirmed El Salvador’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B-‘ with a Stable Outlook in April of this year. They consider a 2023 pension-related debt operation a default on a distressed debt exchange.
Pension reform is a further demand of the IMF and remains a political hot potato. An actuarial study suggests the Solidarity Guarantee Account could run out by 2029.
Perhaps the greater conflict between the IMF and El Salvador is in the marketing of Bitcoin. The State continues to publicly promote a one-BTC-per day strategy but the IMF stated that the increase in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Fund reflects a consolidation of BTC across various government-owned wallets, rather than new market purchases. The issue will become clearer in the coming months when the IMF arrives to complete their programme reviews. Part of the EFF stipulations include audited financial reports for all Bitcoin-linked public entities.
Digital asset platform Bitfinex believes there are three profiles of Bitcoin users in El Salvador – the saver seeking to protect capital, companies that have incorporated Bitcoin into their financial strategy and institutions that are betting on tokenization.
El Salvador has been at the vanguard of creating the legal and financial framework to allow for digital assets to be traded. However, Bitfinex argues that a regional approach is required.
“For both individual and corporate use cases to evolve into a permanent and robust infrastructure, Latin America needs a unified foundation with institutional standards. The momentum generated by users and corporate treasuries has already demonstrated the potential of blockchain infrastructure,” said Fabián Delgado, Business Development Manager for Colombia and Latin America at Bitfinex
“Now the responsibility lies with the ecosystem developers and those responsible for designing public policies that will allow the construction of a formal financial architecture for the region.”
Even with laws in place and financial options to purchase Bitcoin and other digital assets, the next step El Salvador and Central America needs to take is in adoption. Remittances received by crypto increased by 41.7% between January and July of this year, to US$29.25mn.
Five years after the Bitcoin Law came into being, the realities of day-to-day public finance might end up crushing Bukele’s dream.
Source: Central America Briefing | Vol 14, Issue 15
Facts Only
* The El Salvador government is expanding its Bitcoin holdings despite IMF warnings about jeopardizing its US$1.4bn program.
* The National Bitcoin Office reported holding more than 7,715 BTC on July 15, valued at US$489.06 million.
* The government reportedly buys one Bitcoin daily at prices between US$61,840 and US$64,492.
* More than US$423 million of public funds has been used to purchase Bitcoin.
* The Extended Fund Facility (EFF) required El Salvador to scale back Bitcoin exposure and made merchant acceptance voluntary.
* El Salvador banned tax payments via Bitcoin and liquidated the Fidebitcoin trust.
* The EFF prohibits the accumulation of Bitcoin with public funds.
* The country aims to accumulate around 20,000 BTC, requiring serious negotiations with the IMF for a threefold increase.
* Fitch Ratings described the EFF as "stalled," with review dates set for September 2025 and March 2026.
* El Salvador’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) was affirmed at ‘B-‘ with a Stable Outlook in April of this year.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The narrative presents a tension between sovereign asset accumulation, public financial obligations, and international conditionalities. The core pattern involves an entity pursuing a high-growth, decentralized asset strategy while simultaneously being bound by multilateral agreements predicated on fiscal stability and debt management. The dispute centers not just on the quantity of Bitcoin held, but on the nature of its acquisition—whether it constitutes legitimate market activity or a circumvention of binding fiscal stipulations imposed by institutions like the IMF. The conflicting signals regarding the government's intent—public promotion versus operational consolidation—create a zone of analytical ambiguity.
The implication is that the conflict is less about the technology itself and more about the governance and transparency framework applied to digital assets within sovereign financial policy. If the ultimate goal for El Salvador is maximizing private utility or personal opportunity, it directly clashes with international mandates focused on debt servicing and public spending guarantees. The focus on 'marketing' Bitcoin versus 'consolidation' suggests a strategic effort to manage external perception while internally executing accumulation goals that strain existing agreements. The systemic implication points toward a potential divergence between domestic policy objectives and the stipulations of international financial oversight, forcing a negotiation over what constitutes permissible stewardship of national reserves when digital assets are involved.
Bridge questions: What specific mechanisms exist within the EFF to penalize public spending in ways other than limiting asset accumulation? How can institutional standards for digital asset infrastructure be developed regionally without compromising national fiscal sovereignty? If the primary conflict is in marketing, how might a unified approach to digital finance redefine the relationship between national economic policy and global financial oversight?
Sentinel — Human
This article presents a complex narrative weaving together specific government actions, international financial stipulations, and evolving digital asset realities, exhibiting the depth and contextual layering typical of informed journalism.