El Salvador adds another 150 Bitcoin to its coffers — totalling over $32 million in Bitcoin

• This is the second time President Bukele of El Salvador has ‘bought the dip’ this month.
• El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender on September 7, amid warnings and criticism from global financial institutions, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Despite celebrations within the crypto community, El Salvador’s rollout of Bitcoin hasn’t been without its issues.

Despite concerns from experts, El Salvador is showing no signs of rolling back its Bitcoin adoption plans. The country, which officially made Bitcoin legal tender earlier this year, has added another 150 BTC to its coffers.


This means El Salvador now holds over $32.5 million worth of BTC. Bukele had sent out a similar tweet on September 8 after Bitcoin’s first drop this month, announcing that he had bought another 150 Bitcoin. The country’s total tally lies at around 700 Bitcoin right now, based on announcements by Bukele.

Data from Coin ATM Radar pegs El Salvador to have the third-largest network of crypto ATMs in the country after the US and Canada, despite being a fraction of their size. The number of installed machines account for 70% of all crypto ATMs in South America.

Even Bancoagricola, the biggest bank in El Salvador, is now accepting Bitcoin to pay for debts originated from the use of its instruments.

Bitcoin legalisation is not without its pitfalls

Despite Bukele’s triumphant tweets about Bitcoin though, Salvador’s Bitcoin rollout hasn’t been without its hassles. The country’s Chivo wallet, which is meant to help citizens transact in Bitcoins, has had technical issues since its rollout. On September 7, the Wall Street Journal reported that the wallet didn’t show up on major app stores shortly after Salvador made the currency legal. The report also said that Salvador plans to spend $225 million on buying Bitcoin.

El Salvador’s acceptance of Bitcoin has come as a major boost but major international monetary bodies and experts have warned against the move. On September 17, Reuters reported that experts fear that the country won’t reach a $1 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the back of negative credit implications because of its Bitcoin use.

“Some countries may be tempted by a shortcut: adopting crypto assets as national currencies. Many are indeed secure, easy to access, and cheap to transact. We believe, however, that in most cases risks and costs outweigh potential benefits,” the IMF had said in a blog post in July.

Bitcoin keeps dipping

The price of Bitcoin crossed $50,000 on September 7 — just before El Salvador’s new Bitcoin law went live — but has been dropping for about a fortnight now. At the time of writing, at 12:35 pm Indian Standard Time (IST), Bitcoin was priced at around $45000, according to Coinmarketcap. Bukele’s tweet coincided with the cryptocurrency’s most recent price drop of about $2000 in under 24 hours.