IMF Scrutinizes El Salvador’s 7,696 BTC Reserve

El Salvador’s public Bitcoin reserve is listed at 7,696 BTC, about $460.7 million, on public wallet trackers as of June 28. A social-media post on June 26 revived claims that the government has been buying one Bitcoin a day and had purchased more than 170 BTC so far this year.

In a March 2025 briefing, the International Monetary Fund said Bitcoin acceptance in the private sector must be voluntary, taxes must be payable in U.S. dollars and the public sector should avoid accumulating Bitcoin. Subsequent IMF review documents introduced a continuous quantitative performance criterion that sets a zero ceiling on voluntary public-sector BTC accumulation and on public-sector BTC-denominated or BTC-indexed debt and tokenized instruments.

IMF staff have characterized some apparent increases in the public reserve as accounting consolidations across government-owned wallets rather than new net purchases. Transfers among state wallets can make a public-facing address or tracker show a larger balance without increasing the overall government stock. Internal transfers would not violate the IMF ceiling; new purchases would.

Bitcoin traded near $59,000 to $60,000 after a roughly 19% decline over the prior 30 days. Over recent weeks, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded multi-week outflows totaling about $5.94 billion, and some corporate Bitcoin financing structures have shown strains.

The next indications of whether visible reserve changes represent net accumulation or internal accounting will come from upcoming IMF reviews, detailed wallet disclosures from the treasury and independent balance-sheet trackers.