Key Insights
- The IMF has just confirmed that El Salvador did not purchase any Bitcoin this year, despite government claims.
- The government reported its internal wallet transfers as a sign of its “growing” Bitcoin reserves.
- President Bukele’s administration continued to announce daily BTC buying after signing an IMF loan deal that prohibited it.
Surprisingly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just confirmed that El Salvador made no new Bitcoin purchases this year.
This is such a problem, because the country repeatedly claimed to be accumulating one Bitcoin per day. These findings have created some controversy about the government’s transparency, especially after President Nayib Bukele insisted for months that the country was actively adding more Bitcoin to its reserves.
Daily Bitcoin Purchases Were a Lie
Since early this year, El Salvador’s government including the National Bitcoin Office claimed it was buying one Bitcoin per day.
These announcements were widely shared across social media and echoed by crypto news outlets. In fact, on March 4, Bukele reconfirmed the initiative on X, with the Bitcoin Office later claiming that the country’s BTC holdings were more than 6,100 coins.
Turns out the IMF did in fact make El Salvador stop Bitcoin purchases in order to get a fiat loan.
Footnote #9 states they have just been making it appear as if they have been continuing to buy but in fact have just been consolidating multi government wallets.
Source :… pic.twitter.com/46AFU1oi08
— Magoo PhD (@HodlMagoo) July 17, 2025
However, the IMF’s 15 July report showed that no such purchases happened.
According to the Fund, the public sector’s Bitcoin holdings have remained unchanged since December of last year, when El Salvador received a $1.4 billion loan through the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF). In essence, the wallet balance increases that caused all the hype were merely funds being consolidated from multiple government-controlled wallets.
Behind the Curtain
The IMF report points out that the illusion of increased BTC holdings likely came from movements between internal wallets. This trend created a fake image of daily purchases, and did not represent actual market activity or fresh investments with public funds.
In addition to this, the report pointed out minor fluctuations in deposits to the government’s Chivo Bitcoin wallet. These were also resolved internally without further public spending. In other words, while numbers may have shifted on paper or in digital wallets, El Salvador made no genuine Bitcoin buys at all this year.
Bitcoin: Political Theater or Strategic Defiance?
President Bukele, who is known for being passionate about Bitcoin, has often painted El Salvador as a trailblazer in digital currency adoption. In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender. However, after financial pressure and negotiations with the IMF, the government revised its stance early this year.
Bitcoin Versus The IMF
In this new report, we explain how the IMF is both obsessed with Bitcoin & vehemently anti-Bitcoin. In the El Salvador IMF country reports, Bitcoin is the second most common word #Bitcoin is mentioned 319 times in two reports!! pic.twitter.com/12QkN4OEYK
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) July 12, 2025
Under the terms of its IMF agreement, El Salvador was required to halt all new BTC purchases with taxpayer money, and scale back its public involvement in the crypto space. Yet, Bukele and the Bitcoin Office continued to imply that accumulation was ongoing.
Even after the IMF sent a reminder in March to honor the agreement, Bukele responded defiantly, posting, “No, it’s not stopping… and it won’t stop in the future.” Despite his public statements, the latest IMF report confirms that he eventually complied with the loan terms, at least in practice.
The IMF’s findings confirm that El Salvador is keeping up with the terms of the loan. Besides, the fallout from this blatant lie may be long-lasting. The idea that the government misled the public and the crypto community could damage its reputation. It could also affect its future crypto-related moves.
