El Salvador Continues Daily Bitcoin Acquisitions Amid Market Slump

The price of bitcoin has fallen in the past few days amid increased selling pressure from Mt. Gox repayments and a bleak economic outlook. Despite this, El Salvador continues to buy one bitcoin (BTC) every day.

According to data from BitInfoCharts, a cold wallet controlled by the Salvadoran government has accumulated 1 BTC since mid-March, when El Salvador President Nayib Bukele transferred the country’s BTC holdings to a cold wallet and published its address.

At the time of the transfer, El Salvador held about 5,600 BTC, worth more than $400 million. Bukele called El Salvador’s wallet “the first Bitcoin piggy bank.”

The March disclosure also marked the first time the president publicly revealed El Salvador’s bitcoin wallet address. Previously, he had only updated new bitcoin purchases on social media.

El Salvador’s steady Bitcoin purchases are part of Bukele’s daily purchasing strategy. The president announced in 2022 that the country would begin buying one Bitcoin per day starting November 18, 2022.

The implementation of this strategy comes after a groundbreaking move in September 2021 when El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

Previously, Bukele said the country was not only buying BTC but also accumulating it through passport sales, currency exchange, mining operations and other government services.

According to Reuters, on May 15, 2024, 473.5 bitcoins (BTC) were mined in El Salvador using geothermal energy from the Tecapa volcano.

El Salvador recently revealed its plans to accelerate the integration of Bitcoin into its banking system. The government reportedly submitted a reform proposal to create a private investment bank that would allow Bitcoin and US dollar operations.