IMF RULES EL SALVADOR’S NEW COINS WERE ALL ‘DONATIONS’ — THE STACK GREW TO 7,764 BTC ANYWAY — EVERYONE KEEPS THEIR STORY, BUKELE KEEPS THE COINS
The deal that was supposed to stop a country from stacking produced a country that stacks for free.
The IMF lent El Salvador $1.4 billion on the condition that the government stop buying Bitcoin with public money. The country’s official tracker kept climbing anyway — one coin a day, every day, plus a 1,091-coin jump last November. This week the fund’s own review supplied the answer: every coin added since June 2025 was a private donation. Documented, says the IMF. Donors unnamed. No rules broken, and roughly $140 million more loan money unlocks. There are two ways to read that and both belong on the table. One: the paperwork is clean, and private citizens really are gifting a nation-state its treasury — which would itself be a first in monetary history. Two: the world’s lender of last resort was handed an answer it could not afford to reject, because rejecting it meant blowing up its own program. Either way the scoreboard reads the same. The lender kept its conditions. The country kept its coins. And the wallet the IMF wanted out of government hands went to a private operator nobody will name.
KEY RECEIPTS
IMF press release, Sept 3: staff-level agreement on the combined 2nd and 3rd reviews of the $1.4B, 40-month program; ~$140 million (SDR 101.96M) disbursement pending board approval.
The fund says all Bitcoin added to official holdings since June 2025 came from private donations, with no public funds used — and expects no accumulation beyond documented donations (IMF, via CoinDesk and The Block).
Official tracker: 7,764.37 BTC — roughly $616 million at today’s ~$79,400. Still receiving 1 BTC per day; jumped 1,091 BTC in November 2025.
Donors: unidentified. Amounts per donor: undisclosed.
Chivo wallet: majority ownership and control transferred to a private operator the IMF did not name; the state keeps a minority stake and custody of customer assets.
Bukele, March 2025: Bitcoin purchases “won’t stop.”
Original deal terms: private acceptance voluntary, taxes paid in dollars, public-sector buying limited.
The fund says all Bitcoin added to official holdings since June 2025 came from private donations, with no public funds used — and expects no accumulation beyond documented donations (IMF, via CoinDesk and The Block).
Official tracker: 7,764.37 BTC — roughly $616 million at today’s ~$79,400. Still receiving 1 BTC per day; jumped 1,091 BTC in November 2025.
Donors: unidentified. Amounts per donor: undisclosed.
Chivo wallet: majority ownership and control transferred to a private operator the IMF did not name; the state keeps a minority stake and custody of customer assets.
Bukele, March 2025: Bitcoin purchases “won’t stop.”
Original deal terms: private acceptance voluntary, taxes paid in dollars, public-sector buying limited.
The lender kept its conditions. The country kept its coins.
The cap is still twenty-one million.
The cap is still twenty-one million.
IMF Press Release 26/285 · Wed Sep 3 2026 · + CoinDesk, The Block Sep 4