① Although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been warning El Salvador that its exposure to Bitcoin should be limited, El Salvador has stated that it will continue to buy Bitcoin and may even speed up purchases. ② El Salvador currently has 5,968 coins, which are worth approximately $0.594 billion at the current market capitalization.
Financial Services Association, December 21 (Editor Liu Rui) As the first country in the world to legalize the Bitcoin currency, El Salvador's exposure to Bitcoin has always attracted much attention.
Although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been warning El Salvador that its exposure to Bitcoin should be limited, on Thursday EST, El Salvador said it will continue to buy Bitcoin and may even speed up purchases.
Still need to accelerate the increase in Bitcoin holdings?
On Wednesday EST, the Salvadoran government just reached a financing agreement with the IMF. The IMF has said many times before that the country should limit its exposure to Bitcoin.
However, El Salvador's National Bitcoin Office Director Stacy Herbert (Stacy Herbert) wrote on X on Thursday that Bitcoin will still be legal tender in El Salvador, and the government will continue to increase its strategic reserves.
El Salvador and the International Monetary Fund reached a $1.4 billion loan agreement on Wednesday. As part of the agreement, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele (Nayib Bukele) agreed to reduce the size of its Bitcoin policy. The agreement clearly states that El Salvador will only pay taxes in another official currency — the US dollar.
Eugene Epstein (Eugene Epstein), head of North American trading and structured products at financial firm Moneycorp, said that the reason the Salvadoran government announced that it would buy more bitcoins “may simply be to hedge against the negative impact of Bitcoin's declining status in El Salvador.”
“Given the size and possible terms of the IMF agreement, [Bukler] might be worth doing this.”
Still enthusiastically embracing Bitcoin
El Salvador currently has 5,968 coins worth approximately $0.594 billion at current market capitalization.
In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country to list cryptocurrencies as legal tender. It is this move that has caused friction between the country and the International Monetary Fund, which has warned more than once that El Salvador's move would bring financial and legal risks.
Salvadoran President Bukler has been promoting the country's status as a center for promoting digital currency trading. Last month, he hosted a “Adopt Bitcoin” conference.
The country also has “Bitcoin Beach,” a surfing resort for tourists, where businesses have begun to use Bitcoin as a form of payment.