IMF confirms El Salvador’s bitcoin growth was funded by private donations, not public money

El Salvador did not use public funds to accumulate bitcoin $BTC$81,110.59 after the first review of its International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan program, the organization said, citing documentation provided by Salvadoran authorities.

The documents showed bitcoin added since the review came from private donations, the fund said. No further accumulation beyond documented donations is expected.

The disclosure offers an explanation for how El Salvador’s holdings keep growing even though the IMF’s first review called for the public sector’s bitcoin balance to remain unchanged.

The country’s official tracker has meanwhile risen to 7,764.37 $BTC on after the balance jumped by more than 1,000 $BTC in November and continued receiving one $BTC a day.

The IMF statement did not identify the donors or say how much each contributed. President Nayib Bukele had said in March last year that the country’s bitcoin purchases would not stop.

Bitcoin policy has been a key part of the talks. El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021, but the original IMF agreement later made private-sector acceptance voluntary, required taxes to be paid in U.S. dollars and limited public-sector purchases.

The government has since transferred majority ownership and operational control of its Chivo crypto wallet to a private operator while retaining a minority stake and responsibility for custody of customer assets. The IMF did not identify the operator.

El Salvador and IMF staff also agreed on steps to strengthen the legal and supervisory framework for crypto and improve oversight of bitcoin held by the public sector.

The disclosures came as the two sides reached a staff-level agreement on the combined second and third reviews of El Salvador’s 40-month Extended Fund Facility.