IMF staff have said that private donations, not public spending, account for every Bitcoin El Salvador added to its national reserve after June 2025, a finding that runs directly against the Bukele government’s repeated claims of daily state purchases.
The finding came on Thursday 3 September, as the fund announced a staff-level agreement on El Salvador’s combined second and third reviews under its Extended Fund Facility programme.
What the IMF Actually Said
Documentation supplied by Salvadoran authorities verified that the reserve’s accumulation since the programme’s first review ‘reflects private donations and that no public resources were used,’ the IMF said. The fund added that it expects no further additions beyond the donations already documented.
The account sharply contradicts the position the IMF itself gave a year earlier. In September 2025, an IMF communications officer stated that the total quantity of government-owned Bitcoin had not increased at all, and that any growth visible in El Salvador’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Fund reflected coins moving between wallets the state already controlled.
A Reserve That Grew Regardless
The numbers show the reserve did expand. El Salvador held 5,968 BTC when the IMF programme launched in December 2024. According to El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office, the figure now stands at 7,764 BTC, a gain of 1,796 BTC.
President Nayib Bukele’s government has maintained throughout the programme that it buys one Bitcoin per day. The government announced a single 1,090 BTC purchase worth roughly $100 million last November. As recently as 28 August 2026, the Bitcoin Office posted on X that El Salvador had ‘just bought more Bitcoin,’ attaching a treasury chart showing 31 coins added over the preceding 30 days, a claim that directly contradicts the IMF’s account of donation-only accumulation.
Chivo Wallet Changes Hands
The IMF reviews also surfaced a structural change to Chivo, the state Bitcoin wallet launched alongside El Salvador’s 2021 Bitcoin Law. Majority ownership and operational control of Chivo have passed to a private operator, which the fund did not name. El Salvador retains a minority stake and responsibility for safeguarding customer assets.
$140 Million on the Line
The staff-level agreement, if approved by the IMF executive board and contingent on El Salvador completing agreed prior actions, would release approximately $140 million, equivalent to SDR 101.96 million. That disbursement is a tranche of the 40-month, $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility approved in February 2025.
The programme’s original terms required El Salvador to make merchant acceptance of Bitcoin voluntary, collect taxes in dollars, and halt public-sector Bitcoin purchases. That last condition is what gives the donations finding its weight. If any of the 1,796 BTC had been bought with public money, El Salvador would be in breach of the terms attached to its loan.
Broader Economic Picture
IMF staff also reached understandings on modernising digital asset regulation and tightening governance and risk management around public-sector cryptocurrency holdings.
The fund projects 4.5 percent economic growth for El Salvador this year, driven by investment, remittances, and tourism, and wants the country to bring public debt toward 80 percent of GDP by 2030.
The IMF did not identify who donated the Bitcoin to El Salvador, nor how much each donor contributed.
