El Salvador received support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But won’t the price be the country’s departure from bitcoin? The matter is not clear today.
El Salvador stops shopping?
El Salvador will finally receive a loan from the IMF of as much as USD 1.4 billion. However, the price he has to pay for it is important. It is not only about economic reforms (which is normal in the case of such agreements with the IMF), but also about limiting its pro-Bitcoin policy. The fund wants the government not to invest further in BTC.
Despite the above, El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office wrote in a December 19 post on X that it has “transferred over $1 million worth of bitcoin to our Strategic Reserve.” In practice, it was supposed to be as many as 11 bitcoins.
11 BTC is a lot for one investor, but considering the scale of purchases in El Salvador – not much. From the last quarter of 2022, the country was to add “one bitcoin per day” to its balance sheet. This plan was announced by President Nayib Bukeler. Since then, the state has already acquired 6,2023 BTC. National Bitcoin Office director Stacy Herbert said in X’s December 19 post that El Salvador “will continue to purchase bitcoin (possibly at an accelerated pace).”
So what is it about?
Now let’s return to the agreement with the IMF. On December 18, the Bukele government concluded a financial agreement with the Fund, according to which the country is to receive a USD 1.4 billion loan, but in return it must “limit” its BTC purchases. So how does this relate to Herbert’s post? A spokesman for the agency she manages told the portal Cointelegraph that the country “will buy one bitcoin per day and will not sell” its digital assets.
Bitcoin is still our main strategy
– he added.
So things look… weird. At the same time, El Salvador wants to continue its purchases on the cryptocurrency market, but it also agreed to the conditions of the IMF, which demands a restriction of the pro-Bitcoin policy.
To see what exactly is happening in El Salvador, you will have to keep an eye on whether the country continues to add BTC to its balance sheet. This is possible thanks to https://nayibtracker.com.