El Salvador bitcoin buying continued. The IMF says public money did not

El Salvador has posted a bitcoin purchase on almost every day of 2026. The IMF now says none of the country's accumulation since June 2025 came from public funds, and that the government handed over documentation showing those additions were private donations. Both statements can hold at once, and together they describe a very consistent donor.

What the IMF agreed

Fund staff and the Salvadoran authorities reached a staff-level agreement on 3 September covering the combined second and third reviews of a 40-month Extended Fund Facility. Board approval would release about $140 million, or SDR 101.96 million. The reviews were due in 2025 and early 2026 and slipped while pension reform and other benchmarks stayed unresolved.

On the bitcoin question the Fund's line is one sentence long: no further accumulation beyond the documented donations is expected.

“Going forward, no further Bitcoin accumulation beyond the documented donations is expected.”

— International Monetary Fund, The Block, 4 September 2026

Quote source: The Block, 4 September 2026

What the El Salvador bitcoin deal gives up

The commitments attached to the money unwind the 2021 Bitcoin Law piece by piece. Private businesses keep the right to accept bitcoin and lose the obligation. Taxes get paid in US dollars. Public-sector participation in bitcoin activities is limited, governance and risk controls around crypto assets get tightened, and the legal framework for digital assets is rewritten.

Nothing on that list bans holding. El Salvador keeps its 7,762 BTC, worth roughly $616 million at today's price and the fifth-largest government reserve in the world. What it gives up is what made the country a headline: mandatory acceptance, and a state that buys in public.

The reserve is also a position. Bitcoin trades about 37% below its own record, so the same 7,762 coins would have been worth around $979 million at the peak. Public treasuries carry that gap differently from trading desks, as the Nakamoto write-down showed this week, and El Salvador has never sold.

The gap in the record

The documentation the Fund reviewed is not public. The running tally is. It grew from 6,190 BTC in mid-2025 to 7,474 by November of that year, and that stretch includes a single purchase of 1,090 BTC worth around $100 million at the time.

A hundred million dollars of donated bitcoin is a large gift, and nobody has named the giver. The Fund says it saw the paperwork. That is where the public record ends.

The number to watch is the daily post. Bitcoin has spent this week climbing back through $82,000 and falling away again, which changes the size of the gift without changing the question. If the purchases continue after Board approval, the donation explanation has to keep working, and each day adds an entry to a ledger the Fund has put its name to.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.