El Salvador has intensified its Bitcoin strategy despite one of the year’s steepest market pullbacks, after adding more than 1,000 BTC in a single move and pushing its reported holdings to roughly 7,500 BTC.
According to the country’s Bitcoin Office, the latest acquisition is worth around $100 million and was executed as the cryptocurrency briefly plunged below $90,000. The purchase is the largest one-day increase the Central American country has announced and aligns with President Nayib Bukele’s pledge to keep expanding the national BTC reserve through steady daily acquisitions.
Bitcoin Crashes, El Salvador Loads Up
President Nayib Bukele shared a screenshot of the transaction on his X account, reaffirming his earlier stance that the government has no plans to pause its accumulation.
The announcement, however, has renewed questions about how these holdings are being managed and whether the government is making fresh market purchases or simply consolidating assets across its various wallets. The IMF’s $1.4 billion loan agreement states that El Salvador’s public sector should not acquire additional Bitcoin, and senior financial officials previously said the government had not added any units since February.
An IMF report later indicated that increases in the reserve likely reflect internal transfers rather than new buys. Despite this, the country’s Bitcoin Office continues to assert that real purchases are taking place, as well as its leadership pointing to on-chain records as evidence.
The latest update also comes against the backdrop of increased coordination with the United States on digital-asset policy, including a meeting between President Bukele and Bo Hines, the executive director of the White House’s Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, earlier this year.
Bolivia-El Salvador Pact
Besides its aggressive accumulation strategy, El Salvador is also making moves to shape digital-asset policy across Latin America. In July, the Central Bank of Bolivia signed a memorandum of understanding with El Salvador’s National Commission for Digital Assets, in a bid to allow the two institutions to exchange technical and regulatory expertise, including blockchain analytics and risk-assessment tools.
The partnership was touted as a major step for Bolivia, which is seeking clearer rules as its digital-asset usage accelerates following last year’s Decree 082/2024. For El Salvador, the agreement strengthens its role as a regional leader in crypto policy, backed by years of experience regulating, purchasing, and even mining BTC.