- El Salvador has frozen Bitcoin spending and shifted all holdings into one central wallet.
- The IMF confirmed the country is reducing its role in Bitcoin to meet loan conditions.
- President Bukele still supports daily Bitcoin buys despite the ongoing IMF pressure.
El Salvador is no longer buying Bitcoin using public funds, according to a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) compliance report. Instead, the government is consolidating its Bitcoin holdings from several addresses into one. This revelation ends months of speculation surrounding the country’s accumulation strategy and its compliance with a $1.4 billion loan agreement signed in December 2024.
Government Bitcoin Holdings Remain Unchanged, IMF Confirms
The IMF’s latest review examined El Salvador’s adherence to loan conditions attached to the $1.4 billion credit facility. According to the report, the public sector’s Bitcoin stock remains unchanged, contradicting claims of continued accumulation.
A signed letter of intent by El Salvador’s central bank president, Douglas Pablo Rodríguez Fuentes, and minister of finance, Jerson Rogelio Posada Molina, clarified the position. The officials wrote.
“In line with commitments under the program, the stock of Bitcoins held by the public sector remains unchanged, and we are taking steps to mitigate fiscal risks by reducing the public sector’s role in the Chivo wallet and reframing the Bitcoin project”
While the government has stopped direct Bitcoin purchases, the report revealed a technical accumulation occurring due to the Chivo Wallet’s structure. When users sell Bitcoin for liquidity, the system does not liquidate the underlying BTC. As a result, the public sector’s holdings increase by default. The IMF stated that all wallet addresses and balances are now monitored using signed statements and a tracking tool that detects daily changes. This system was implemented to identify shifts in the wallet’s Bitcoin activity and to control liquidity flow.
Fiscal Risk Mitigation Through Strategic Realignment
The IMF noted that El Salvador is now working to create a financial buffer to manage potential risk from the Chivo Wallet. According to the fund, “Corrective actions have been taken to establish a sufficient buffer to mitigate the risk of future breaches prior to the planned sale of Chivo.”
In January 2025, El Salvador’s legislature revised its Bitcoin law. The amendments made Bitcoin acceptance voluntary and stopped the use of taxpayer money for further accumulation. This move aligned with IMF conditions, reflecting the government’s attempt to reduce fiscal exposure to crypto assets.
Related: El Salvador Adds More Bitcoin After IMF Loan Review Approval
Nonetheless, even with all these changes to the law, the official Bitcoin Office still maintained that the government was actively purchasing Bitcoin. This paradox raised suspicions of whether the country was complying with the arrangements of the IMF loan. This came to a head in March 2025 when the IMF gave an official warning to the Salvadoran administration to stop amassing all the Bitcoin. President Nayib Bukele, in turn, further supported the crypto posture.
Bukele Rejects IMF Pressure, Defends Continued Bitcoin Stacking
President Bukele responded defiantly to IMF requests, publicly confirming that Bitcoin accumulation would continue. On March 4, he posted on X: “No, it’s not stopping. If it didn’t stop when the world ostracized us and most ‘bitcoiners’ abandoned us, it won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future.”
This was said even though the IMF prioritized decreasing the extent of crypto in the public sector. Nonetheless, a recent report confirmed that the government is currently distancing itself from Bitcoin operations to satisfy the loan demands.
As the pressure grows, the policy of crypto in El Salvador has shifted towards a more conservative restructuring. The records of the IMF give an insight into the transition of the country and the balance of political ambition and economic duty.
