Private donations account for the Bitcoin El Salvador has added to its national reserve since mid-2025, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday, announcing a staff-level agreement on the country's combined second and third program reviews.

The agreement unlocks about $140 million if the IMF's executive board approves it. Documentation supplied by Salvadoran authorities verified that the accumulation since the first review "reflects private donations and that no public resources were used," the fund said. It expects no further additions beyond those documented donations.

The IMF's account differs from one the fund gave a year ago. In September 2025, an IMF communications officer told Decrypt that the total quantity of government-owned Bitcoin had not increased at all, and that growth in El Salvador's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Fund reflected coins moving between wallets the state already controlled.

The reserve held 5,968 BTC when the program began in December 2024 and now stands at 7,764 BTC, per El Salvador's Bitcoin Office. President Nayib Bukele's government has maintained throughout that it buys one Bitcoin a day, and announced a 1,090 BTC purchase worth roughly $100 million last November.

As recently as last week, the Bitcoin Office tweeted that El Salvador had "just bought more Bitcoin," attaching a treasury chart showing 31 coins added over 30 days, contradicting the IMF's account.

🇸🇻EL SALVADOR JUST BOUGHT MORE BITCOIN One BTC per day, every day! Consistency = winning. Proof 👇 pic.twitter.com/myqwTuarQf — The Bitcoin Office (@bitcoinofficesv) August 28, 2026

🇸🇻EL SALVADOR JUST BOUGHT MORE BITCOIN

One BTC per day, every day!

Consistency = winning. Proof 👇 pic.twitter.com/myqwTuarQf

— The Bitcoin Office (@bitcoinofficesv) August 28, 2026

Chivo changes hands

Majority ownership and operational control of Chivo, the state wallet launched alongside the 2021 Bitcoin Law, have passed to a private operator the fund did not name. El Salvador keeps a minority stake and responsibility for safeguarding customer assets. The handover follows years of criticism over the wallet's rollout, which was plagued by technical failures and low sustained usage after it debuted with $30 sign-up incentives, and it marks a further step in the government's retreat from direct operation of Bitcoin infrastructure under the IMF program.

The reviews would release about $140 million, or SDR 101.96 million, once the executive board signs off and El Salvador completes agreed prior actions. The money is a tranche of the 40-month, $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility approved in February 2025, whose terms required the country to make merchant acceptance of Bitcoin voluntary, collect taxes in dollars and stop public-sector buying. Those conditions made the ongoing reserve accumulation a central point of friction between Bukele's government and the fund, and the donations finding is what allows the two accounts to coexist: coins can keep entering the reserve, but not with state money.

Staff also reached understandings on modernizing digital asset regulation and tightening governance and risk management around public-sector crypto holdings.

The fund projects 4.5% growth this year on the back of investment, remittances and tourism, and wants public debt brought toward 80% of GDP by 2030.

Who gave El Salvador the Bitcoin, and how much each donor handed over, the IMF did not say. Whether the executive board approves the disbursement, how El Salvador completes the agreed prior actions, and whether the Bitcoin Office continues announcing daily purchases against the fund's expectation of no further additions are the open questions to watch.