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El Salvador and Bitcoin

The first country to make bitcoin legal tender: the law, the wallet, the treasury, the bonds, the IMF deal and what changed.

Government holdings, published addresses

7,807.37 BTC

As of Oct 17, 2026, 5:03 AM EDT · 20 addresses · refreshed hourly

Sum of confirmed received minus spent outputs across the addresses published by El Salvador's National Bitcoin Office, read from its public API.[24] It counts only the addresses the office publishes, so it may not include every coin the state controls. The IMF has reported that the government consolidated its publicly known cold wallets in 2025.[12] Not a price or a recommendation.

The 2021 Bitcoin Law

President Nayib Bukele announced on June 5, 2021, in a video shown at a bitcoin conference in Miami, that he would send Congress a bill to make bitcoin legal tender. The Legislative Assembly approved the Bitcoin Law (Decree No. 57) on June 8, 2021, and it was published on June 9.[1][2][3]

The law made bitcoin legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar, required economic agents to accept it as payment, allowed taxes to be paid in bitcoin, and took effect 90 days after publication, on September 7, 2021.[3]

Chivo, the government wallet

The government launched the Chivo wallet when the law took effect, with $30 of bitcoin as a sign-up incentive. The law took effect amid a street protest against it in San Salvador.[4][5][6]

A representative face-to-face survey of about 1,800 households, combined with blockchain data on Chivo transactions, found that use of digital payments and bitcoin was low, concentrated and decreasing over time, and that privacy concerns were a key barrier. Reuters reported that only 20% of people who downloaded Chivo kept using it after spending the $30 bonus. In a 2023 survey by the University of Central America's public opinion institute, 88% of Salvadorans said they had not used bitcoin that year.[5][4][7]

Under the 2025 IMF program the government committed to unwind its participation in Chivo. In October 2026 the IMF reported that majority ownership and control of Chivo had been transferred to a private operator,.[8][9]

The treasury and its purchases

On September 6, 2021, the day before the law took effect, Bukele said the government held 400 bitcoin. On November 17, 2022, he wrote “We are buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow.”[10][11]

As a prior action for the 2025 IMF program, the government consolidated all government-controlled cold wallets whose addresses had been public since April 2024.[12]

The IMF said in June 2025 that efforts should continue to keep public-sector bitcoin holdings unchanged. In October 2026 it reported that certain performance criteria, including on bitcoin accumulation, had not been met, granted waivers based on corrective measures, and said no further accumulation is expected beyond documented donations.[13][9]

Bitcoin bonds and Bitcoin City

On November 20, 2021, Bukele announced plans for a “Bitcoin City” in La Unión, powered by geothermal energy from a volcano and funded initially by a $1 billion bitcoin-backed bond, the so-called volcano bond. Blockstream's chief strategy officer said on stage it would be a 10-year dollar bond with a 6.5% coupon.[14][15]

The issue was postponed in March 2022, with the government saying it expected better market conditions. Congress passed a Digital Assets Issuance Law on January 11, 2023, creating a legal framework for such offerings. In February 2024 Reuters reported that ground had yet to be broken on Bitcoin City.[16][17][7]

We could not find a primary record that the volcano bond has been issued as of the date checked.[16][7]

The 2025 IMF arrangement and the legal change

Legislative Decree No. 199 of January 29, 2025, published January 30, reformed the Bitcoin Law so that private-sector acceptance of bitcoin is voluntary. The IMF lists the reform, and the rule that taxes are paid only in U.S. dollars, among the program's prior actions.[18][8][12]

On February 26, 2025, the IMF Executive Board approved a 40-month Extended Fund Facility arrangement of about US$1.4 billion. The program commits the government to confine its engagement in bitcoin-related activities and its transactions in and purchases of bitcoin.[8]

The IMF completed the first review in June 2025 and the combined second and third reviews on October 1, 2026, releasing about US$138 million at that point.[13][9]

Max Keiser and the National Bitcoin Office

Max Keiser, a longtime bitcoin promoter who co-hosted the Keiser Report with his wife, Stacy Herbert, told The Wall Street Journal in March 2023 that he served as a senior adviser to Bukele, a role the paper said people familiar with the matter confirmed.[19][20]

El País reported in April 2023 that Keiser and Herbert had been in charge of the National Bitcoin Office, an agency attached to the presidency, since the end of 2022. The office publishes the tracker used for the holdings figure on this page.[21][22]

Max Keiser profile · Nayib Bukele profile

Criticism and outcomes

Fitch cut El Salvador's long-term rating to CCC from B- in February 2022, saying that the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender had added uncertainty about the potential for an IMF program.[23]

Usage stayed low in independent surveys (see Chivo above), and Reuters reported in February 2024 that only about 1% of remittances were sent through digital wallets. By 2026 acceptance was voluntary, Chivo was majority privately owned and the IMF program limited further state purchases, though the government still held bitcoin.[5][7][9]

Sources

  1. [1] Reuters, “El Salvador's president says will send bill to make bitcoin legal tender” (Jun 5, 2021)
  2. [2] Reuters, “In a world first, El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender” (Jun 9, 2021)
  3. [3] Bitcoin Law (Legislative Decree No. 57), translation published by Invest El Salvador
  4. [4] Reuters, “A year on, El Salvador's bitcoin experiment is stumbling” (Sep 7, 2022)
  5. [5] Alvarez, Argente and Van Patten, “Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador,” NBER Working Paper 29968 (2022)
  6. [6] Reuters, “Salvador street protest breaks out against bitcoin adoption” (Sep 7, 2021)
  7. [7] Reuters, “Short on cash, El Salvador doubles down on Bitcoin dream” (Feb 2, 2024)
  8. [8] IMF Press Release 25/43, “IMF Executive Board Approves New 40-month US$1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility Arrangement for El Salvador” (Feb 26, 2025)
  9. [9] IMF Press Release 26/316, Second and Third Reviews under the EFF (Oct 1, 2026)
  10. [10] Reuters, “El Salvador holds 400 bitcoin, price jumps” (Sep 6, 2021)
  11. [11] Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) on X, Nov 17, 2022
  12. [12] IMF, Statement by the IMF Staff Representative on El Salvador (Feb 26, 2025), IMF Country Report 25/58
  13. [13] IMF Press Release 25/223, 2025 Article IV and First Review under the EFF (Jun 27, 2025)
  14. [14] Reuters, “El Salvador plans first ‘Bitcoin City’, backed by bitcoin bonds” (Nov 22, 2021)
  15. [15] Reuters, “Explainer: What we know so far about El Salvador's volcano-powered bitcoin bond” (Nov 23, 2021)
  16. [16] Reuters, “El Salvador postpones bitcoin bond issue, expects better conditions” (Mar 22, 2022)
  17. [17] Reuters, “Salvadoran lawmakers pass digital asset issuance law in bitcoin haven” (Jan 11, 2023)
  18. [18] El Salvador Supreme Court jurisprudence archive: Bitcoin Law and reforms (Decree No. 199, Jan 29, 2025)
  19. [19] The Wall Street Journal, “The New York Couple Behind El Salvador's Bitcoin Experiment” (Mar 28, 2023)
  20. [20] Wikipedia, Max Keiser
  21. [21] El País, “Los criptoevangelistas entran en el Gobierno de Bukele” (Apr 2, 2023, in Spanish)
  22. [22] National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador, treasury tracker (bitcoin.gob.sv)
  23. [23] Fitch Ratings, “Fitch Downgrades El Salvador's Long-Term IDR to ‘CCC’ from ‘B-’” (Feb 9, 2022)
  24. [24] bitcoin.gob.sv wallet API for the ONBTC addresses (public, no key)

Checked Oct 17, 2026 · Timeline · History: Nation-states