El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said that his country has stored $406.6 million in bitcoin in an offline 'cold wallet'
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said that his country has stored $406.6 million in bitcoin in an offline 'cold wallet.' AFP

KEY POINTS

  • Bukele's announcement gained much praise among Bitcoiners on X, but there were also some doubters
  • He said last week that El Salvador stored more than 5,600 Bitcoin to a "cold wallet"
  • El Salvador is the first country to have made Bitcoin a legal tender

El Salvador, a country whose Bitcoin strategy has been at center of attention amid the cryptocurrency's rally in recent weeks, isn't done building its BTC treasury as its leader pledged to double down on the nation's purchases.

President Nayib Bukele announced Saturday that his country will continue to purchase one Bitcoin daily until the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency "becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies."

The crypto community on X (formerly Twitter) immediately huddled under Bukele's post, hailing Bukele, a Bitcoin maximalist, a "legend" for making such a decision.

Amid the congratulatory messages from apparent Bitcoiners, Bukele's post also met doubters, with some saying regulations may sour El Salvador's hope for a brighter financial future through its Bitcoin holdings.

His announcement came just a day after he revealed that El Salvador stashed over $400 million worth of Bitcoin in an offline "cold wallet," saying the BTC treasury can be called El Salvador's "first Bitcoin piggy bank."

Bukele first announced in mid-November 2022 that his country will purchase one Bitcoin daily. At the time, prices were in the lows following the demise of disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency empire.

Based on Bukele's revelation regarding El Salvador's BTC piggy bank, the country has more than 5,600 Bitcoin holdings. While the said number is still far from the holdings of the likes of software firm MicroStrategy and asset management behemoth BlackRock, it is worth noting that El Salvador made history as the first country to circulate the cryptocurrency as legal tender.

Before the 42-year-old president revealed El Salvador's Bitcoin holdings, it was thought that the central American nation had only acquired over 2,600 BTC.

Last week, data from a website tracking Bukele's Bitcoin activity showed that the country saw a 69% jump on its initial BTC investments, indicating some $83 million in profits, as per crypto YouTuber Daan de Rover. Bukele re-shared Rover's post, noting that there are four avenues through which El Salvador makes its Bitcoin strategy work: passport program, mining, Bitcoin conversion for local entrepreneurs, and government services.

Meanwhile, it's been more than two years since Bukele unveiled plans to build the world's first "Bitcoin City" – a futuristic metropolis that will be financed through crypto bonds. At the time of the project's announcement, Bukele said the coastal futuristic city would have museums, an airport, and a monument that honors Bitcoin.

As of January, construction work on the city has not started and a Central American University found that Bitcoin use in the country in 2023 was lackluster, indicating that while El Salvador is on a path of amassing a BTC treasure trove, it has not yet reached the adoption level to finally begin work on Bitcoin City.

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