El Salvador has not used public funds to buy bitcoin since June 2025, the International Monetary Fund said on September 3, attributing all accumulation since then to private donations. The statement came alongside an agreement on the combined second and third reviews of the country’s 40-month Extended Fund Facility, which would unlock about $140 million once the IMF board approves and prior actions are completed.
What the fund actually said
The IMF said Salvadoran authorities provided documentation showing that bitcoin added to official holdings since the first program review on June 27, 2025 came from private donations rather than government purchases. The fund added that no further accumulation beyond the documented donations is expected, and that movements in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Fund may reflect transfers between government-controlled wallets rather than new buying.
The clarification answers a question that has hung over the program for more than a year. Under the December 2024 agreement, El Salvador committed to limit public-sector bitcoin involvement, and in March 2025 IMF documents barred voluntary accumulation by the public sector. President Nayib Bukele responded at the time that purchases would not stop and pledged to keep buying at least one bitcoin a day.
A year of questions
The numbers did keep climbing. El Salvador’s holdings rose from 5,968 BTC around the first review to about 7,764 BTC by September 2026, roughly $628 million at current prices. In July 2025 the IMF explained increases as wallet consolidation, not purchases. In November 2025 the government reported acquiring 1,090 BTC worth about $100 million, which forced the fund into a careful review of whether the program conditions were being met.
Thursday’s statement resolves that review in El Salvador’s favor, at least on paper. The IMF accepted the donation documentation and moved on to the disbursement. A fund representative had said in November that adherence would be reviewed in due course rather than addressed announcement by announcement, and that is effectively what happened.
What El Salvador gets
The $140 million is part of a $1.4 billion program agreed in December 2024, when the country was facing heavy debt maturities and thin reserves. Board approval and prior actions still stand between the staff-level agreement and actual cash. The two sides also agreed on steps to strengthen the legal and supervisory framework for crypto and improve oversight of bitcoin held by the public sector, language that keeps the pressure on without blocking the payment.
The deal matters beyond the sum. Completing reviews keeps the IMF seal of approval attached to Salvadoran debt, which has helped the country refinance at lower spreads over the past year. Bond investors have rewarded the country’s turn toward conventional fiscal management, and the bitcoin question was the last obvious obstacle standing between San Salvador and routine program treatment. It also closes out the most persistent compliance question surrounding the facility, which lets both governments stop relitigating it in public.
Why the donation framing holds up, barely
Skeptics will note that donations to a state bitcoin office are an odd category. Who donates, why, and whether any donor expects favors later are fair questions the IMF statement does not answer. It also gives no total for how much bitcoin arrived as donations since June 2025, and no names. A reserved fund that grows by hundreds of coins through anonymous generosity would not survive scrutiny in a bond prospectus in most markets.
But the mechanism fits the letter of the program. The restrictions cover public resources, and a donation is not a public resource. El Salvador kept its famous one-bitcoin-a-day habit alive without spending budget money, the IMF got a documented trail it could accept, and both sides avoided a confrontation that would have endangered the broader facility. It is a workable arrangement for a government that refuses to stop accumulating and a lender that refuses to let the program fail over a few hundred million dollars of bitcoin.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | $1.4B EFF agreed, bitcoin limits accepted |
| March 2025 | IMF bars voluntary public accumulation; Bukele vows to continue |
| June 2025 | First review completed, 5,968 BTC held |
| November 2025 | Government reports 1,090 BTC purchase worth $100M |
| September 2026 | IMF accepts donation explanation, $140M unlocked |
Market read
For bitcoin watchers, the episode shows how state accumulation now happens in dollarized, IMF-constrained economies: quietly, through structures that satisfy lenders, rather than through headline purchases. El Salvador remains the largest sovereign holder per capita and the clearest test case for whether a country can hold bitcoin at scale while dependent on multilateral financing.
Even if no further accumulation is expected, the country’s reserve already sits at historic highs, and the IMF’s own supervision framework for it will now be written into program conditions. Whether a future government keeps the policy is the open variable. Bukele’s party holds a legislative supermajority through 2027, so nothing changes soon. The practical effect is that El Salvador keeps its bitcoin, keeps its IMF money, and has demonstrated a template that other constrained governments could copy if they wanted exposure without the fight.
There is also a quieter accounting angle. The National Bitcoin Office tracks holdings at roughly 7,764 BTC, but the IMF’s acceptance of the donation story now makes that tracker the official record for program purposes. Any future jump in the number will trigger the same question again, and the fund has effectively pre-committed to expecting no further documented donations. A second round of generosity would be much harder to wave through than the first.
discussion