El Salvador Keeps Buying Bitcoin While Entering Its IMF Program
El Salvador continued announcing Bitcoin purchases while entering an IMF-supported program that constrained public-sector Bitcoin exposure, preserving a visible state commitment to accumulation even as other parts of its Bitcoin policy were rolled back.
On March 5, 2025, El Salvador said it would continue acquiring Bitcoin while also assuring the International Monetary Fund that it could comply with the conditions of a newly approved lending program. The arrangement followed legislative changes that reduced Bitcoin's mandatory legal-tender role and committed the government to limit public-sector involvement in the asset.
The continued purchase announcements became a symbolically important part of the post-agreement period. Rather than abandoning Bitcoin entirely, the government sought to preserve accumulation while restructuring other elements of its national Bitcoin policy, including the role of the Chivo wallet and the degree of public-sector exposure.
The episode shows the durability of Bitcoin ownership once it had become part of national policy. El Salvador's relationship with Bitcoin was no longer a simple question of adoption or reversal: by early 2025 the government was negotiating with an international lender, changing laws and infrastructure, and still signaling that it intended to retain and add to its Bitcoin holdings.