The International Monetary Fund has confirmed that El Salvador has spent no public funds on Bitcoin purchases since June 2025. In return, the fund is releasing around USD 140 million following a program review. El Salvador has therefore given way to the economic organization.

The IMF lends to states with financing problems and ties those loans to economic policy conditions. Its multi-year format is the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The fund pays out in tranches, and before each one it checks whether the country meets the terms. Where conditions go unmet, disbursement stalls. In 2021, El Salvador under President Nayib Bukele became the first country worldwide to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Since then, the fund has repeatedly criticized the step as a risk to financial stability and the budget. El Salvador is one of the fund's smallest borrowers in Latin America by program size, but the case has drawn outsized attention precisely because it tests how multilateral lenders treat public Bitcoin policy.

In December 2024, the government and the fund agreed on a loan program worth USD 1.4 billion. It specifically provided for the state's gradual withdrawal from the Chivo wallet. In line with the program, El Salvador's congress amended the Bitcoin law in early 2025 so that accepting Bitcoin is no longer mandatory for businesses. CVJ.CH reported at the time on the coming end of the Bitcoin nation. The September 2026 agreement now confirms compliance with the Bitcoin-related conditions for the first time. State holdings stand at roughly 7,764 BTC, worth about USD 630 million.

How the fund established that state purchases stopped

The confirmation comes from the staff-level agreement between IMF staff and Salvadoran authorities in early September 2026. It covers the combined second and third review of the 40-month EFF program. Notably, the government submitted documentation showing that the increase in holdings since June 2025 came from private donations. The fund relays this account in its statement on the staff-level agreement. Moreover, it expects no further accumulation beyond the documented donations.

Formally, this is more than a footnote. Restricting public Bitcoin activity is one of the conditions El Salvador accepted with the 2024 loan. Without the staff finding that the country has met those requirements, the review would not conclude. The country's Bitcoin policy has therefore become the subject of periodic examination by an external creditor. Furthermore, the government carries the burden of proof, not the fund. Ultimately, access to further tranches of the USD 1.4 billion program hangs on this finding.

According to the fund, El Salvador is still working on better transparency. So far, the country has not shown how the holdings spread across its state wallets. At the same time, the fund wants the country to strengthen governance and risk management for its public crypto holdings. Both points remain open, although the program has run for more than a year and a half. Anyone who wants to trace the origin of the purchased Bitcoin independently must rely on government figures.

Holdings kept growing in 2025 despite the IMF condition

The timeline of the purchases shows how hard the condition was to enforce. In May 2025, the fund first announced it would push for state Bitcoin holdings to stay unchanged. Shortly afterwards, the government bought eight more BTC anyway. Subsequently, the state Bitcoin Office put holdings at 6,190.18 BTC. That amount was symbolic. The signal to the creditor, however, was clear.

November 2025 brought a far bigger purchase. El Salvador acquired 1,090 BTC in a single day for around USD 100 million — never before had the country bought more in one day. Six months lay between the fund's announcement in May and this large purchase. Total holdings therefore climbed to 7,474 BTC, five months past the June 2025 cutoff that the fund names as the end of public financing. According to the IMF, this USD 100 million likewise came from private donations rather than state funds.

Holdings later rose further, to around 7,764 BTC. Some tallies cite 7,762 BTC, which points to different cutoff dates or rounding. The difference is small, yet it illustrates exactly the transparency problem the fund has flagged. So far, no consolidated and publicly available accounting across all state wallets exists.

What the IMF deal means for El Salvador's Bitcoin ambitions

In macroeconomic terms, the balance looks favorable for the government. The IMF mission projects real GDP growth of 4.5% for 2026, carried by investment, private consumption, remittances, tourism and capital inflows. The price, however, is a loss of fiscal room to maneuver — and that loss falls in precisely the policy area that has given Bukele his international profile.

The holdings themselves remain in place and have gained value. At a Bitcoin price of around USD 81,000, the roughly 7,764 BTC are worth about USD 630 million. Bitcoin's market capitalization stands at USD 1.63 trillion. Back at the end of 2024, the equivalent value stood at just under USD 600 million, when both sides had just reached the first agreement. So the state still holds Bitcoin; it simply no longer buys with its own money.

For other countries with similar plans, the case offers a template. A state can declare Bitcoin legal tender. As soon as it needs multilateral loans, however, that policy becomes negotiable. El Salvador ceded to the IMF the purchases from state funds, the acceptance mandate and control over Chivo. What remains is a holding on the balance sheet and the title of the first country that tried. Whether the donations channel continues to grow holdings, and whether the fund's outstanding transparency demands are met, will be tested at the program's remaining reviews.