Key Takeaways
- El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office confirmed the national reserve reached 7,762 BTC this week.
- The stack is worth roughly $598 million at bitcoin’s price near $77,000 per coin.
- The IMF’s $1.4 billion deal urges a halt to public purchases, but Bukele hasn’t stopped.
Another Day, Another Bitcoin Added
El Salvador’s national bitcoin reserve grew again this week, with the government confirming its holdings now stand at 7,762 BTC. The purchase continues a policy of buying one bitcoin per day regardless of its price (ever since the country became the first nation to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021).
Between January and April alone, the government added more than 1,600 coins to its reserve, a pace that has shown no sign of slowing five years into the experiment.
Additionally, it bears mentioning that the accumulation has continued despite a $1.4 billion IMF financing agreement that explicitly asked El Salvador to confine its public-sector bitcoin purchases and make merchant acceptance voluntary. Bitcoin’s formal legal-tender status was rescinded through a legislative amendment tied to that same IMF deal, but the reserve-buying policy was never part of the rollback.
The government kept adding to its stack without interruption, with President Nayib Bukele being blunt about why and calling the reserve a long-term position.
A BTC Coffer Worth Nearly $600 Million
At bitcoin’s price near $77,000, El Salvador’s stack is worth in the neighborhood of $598 million, making the country one of the largest disclosed sovereign holders of bitcoin in the world, trailing only a handful of nations with far larger economies. That figure moves daily along with the market, which is precisely the point Bukele has made repeatedly.
The government isn’t trying to time a top or a bottom; it’s dollar-cost averaging at a national scale and betting the coin count matters more than the current price tag. A year ago the same 7,762 BTC would have been worth considerably less on paper, and a year from now it could be worth considerably more or less again; the daily-buy policy is designed specifically so no single day’s price swing changes the underlying strategy.
A Strategy Bigger Than the Reserve
The daily buys are just the most visible piece of a broader crypto conviction El Salvador has had, having become the first country to make bitcoin legal tender and built the Chivo wallet to encourage everyday use. That legal-tender status is gone, and Chivo’s mechanics have been rocky, but the reserve-accumulation piece of the strategy survived the recent retreat entirely.
That said, the critics still point to the IMF friction as evidence the strategy carries real diplomatic cost, while supporters argue that a small nation accumulating a scarce, appreciating asset one coin at a time is exactly the kind of patient bet that looks obvious only in hindsight. In any case, the reserve doesn’t seem to be shrinking, and at the current pace, another purchase is just a day away.
