Despite President Nayib Bukele’s claim that El Salvador’s government wouldn’t stop buying Bitcoin, the IMF said negotiations for the sale of its wallet were ”well advanced.”
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Update (Dec. 23 at 7:07 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from the IMF.
The International Monetary Fund’s mission chief for El Salvador issued a statement confirming that government authorities were proceeding with negotiations for the sale of the country’s Chivo Bitcoin wallet.
In a Monday statement, the IMF El Salvador’s government was continuing to discuss its Bitcoin () project with the fund’s officials, and “negotiations for the sale of the government e-wallet Chivo are well advanced.” The announcement signaled that the government may be preparing to sell some or all of its crypto holdings in the Chivo wallet.
The statement followed a May in which the IMF would pay $120 million as part of a 2024 loan agreement for $1.4 billion. As part of the deal, the government would stop acquiring Bitcoin.
It’s unclear whether El Salvador is abiding by the terms of the deal. Though the IMF that the country’s government had not purchased any BTC since December 2024, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office continues to , including 1,090 Bitcoin worth about $100 million in November.
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According to the terms of the IMF-El Salvador deal made public, the government of BTC-related economic activity “confined,” the private sector’s acceptance of Bitcoin would be voluntary, and it would wind down involvement in the Chivo wallet. Cointelegraph reached out to the IMF for comment, and a spokesperson said negotiations for the sale of Chivo were ongoing and they could not comment about the details of this transaction.
El Salvador in 2021 and began acquiring the cryptocurrency as part of a strategy largely pushed by President Nayib Bukele. According to data provided by the country’s Bitcoin Office, the government held 7,509 Bitcoin as of Monday, worth about $659 million at the time of publication.
Despite the reported deal between the IMF and El Salvador, Bukele that the government would continue its Bitcoin investment strategy, purchasing at least one BTC daily. It’s unclear how the president’s statement could affect the IMF agreement.
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