El Salvador Did Not Sell Its Bitcoin, President Bukele Says in Response to El País Report
Key Takeaways
- •President Bukele denied an El País report that El Salvador transferred control of its Bitcoin reserves of over 7,763 BTC to a private operator.
- •The IMF indicated the entity shifted to private majority ownership and control was the state-backed Chivo wallet, not the national Bitcoin reserves.
- •Reducing the state's role in Bitcoin-related infrastructure was a policy commitment under El Salvador's $1.4 billion IMF loan program approved in December 2024.
- •The IMF said El Salvador documented that all Bitcoin acquired since June 27, 2025 came from private donations, with no public funds used and no further accumulation expected.
- •El Salvador is set to access about $140 million in additional financing after agreeing with the IMF to combine the second and third EFF reviews, pending board approval and preconditions.
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has denied a report by El País claiming that the government had transferred control of its state Bitcoin reserves — holdings exceeding 7,763 BTC — to a private operator.
Bukele's objection centers on the interpretation of wording in a recent statement by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding El Salvador. According to the IMF, the entity whose majority stake and operational control has been transferred to a private operator is not the country's strategic Bitcoin reserves, but rather the government-backed Chivo wallet, the state-run Bitcoin wallet launched when El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. Chivo has faced technical problems and low sustained usage since its launch, and gradually reducing the state's role in Bitcoin-related infrastructure was among the policy commitments El Salvador made under a $1.4 billion IMF loan program approved in December 2024, which also narrowed the scope of Bitcoin's legal-tender status.
The IMF previously stated that El Salvador had submitted documents showing that all of the Bitcoin it has accumulated since its first Extended Fund Facility (EFF) review on June 27, 2025, came from private donations. The institution said no public funds were used for Bitcoin purchases during that period, and that no additional Bitcoin accumulation beyond the documented donations was expected.
The announcement followed an agreement between an IMF delegation and El Salvador to combine the second and third reviews of the EFF program. Subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board and fulfillment of the agreed preconditions, El Salvador is expected to gain access to approximately $140 million in additional financing.
El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021, and its holdings have since been a recurring point of discussion in negotiations with international financial institutions. The IMF has consistently pressed the country to limit fiscal risks tied to Bitcoin accumulation, making the transparency of the government's holdings a recurring subject of public reporting and official clarification, as in Bukele's response to El País.
*This is not investment advice.
