IMF Verifies El Salvador’s Bitcoin Freeze Compliance—Because Nothing Says ‘Trust’ Like a Central Bank Audit

El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment just passed another IMF sniff test—turns out, they’re still playing by the rules (for now).

The IMF confirmed the country hasn’t touched its frozen BTC reserves, despite market chaos and political pressure. Cue relieved sighs from crypto purists and eye rolls from traditional finance.

Key detail: This ‘compliance’ hinges on a 2022 pledge to lock up $400M in Bitcoin. Because when your national treasury doubles as a HODL bag, you’d better hope the IMF doesn’t FUD your collateral.

Bottom line: El Salvador keeps walking the tightrope between crypto innovation and IMF appeasement. Meanwhile, Wall Street bankers clutch their pearls and mutter about ‘volatility’ over martinis.

IMF points to broader reforms in El Salvador

Before diving further into El Salvador, the briefing changed to Honduras. A reporter asked about the IMF’s contributions to Honduras and other countries in the region facing confusion and trade tensions.

Rodrigo said, “Honduras just had a staff-level agreement with the Fund. That means that we are ready to go to the Board for the review of the program, the second review.”

Rodrigo explained that Honduras made strong moves when global conditions were calm, fixing structural and macroeconomic issues early. “You repair your roof when it’s sunny outside,” he added, calling Honduras a case of good preparation.

Rodrigo also said that Honduras improved its reserves, secured more funds from international financial institutions (IFIs), lowered inflation, grew its economy, and made fiscal reforms, which left the country stronger against future shocks compared to before.

Coming back to El Salvador, Rodrigo made it very clear that Bitcoin is not the centerpiece of their economic program. “The program of El Salvador is not about bitcoin. It’s much more, much deeper in structural reforms, in terms of governance, in terms of transparency,” he said.

Rodrigo explained that the country is pushing through big changes to make government operations cleaner and more open. Fiscal reforms are also a big part of the agenda, and he confirmed that authorities are pushing forward in getting them done.

The country’s program with the IMF is a 40-month deal worth $1.4 billion, but if you count what they can pull in from other IFIs, it goes up to about $3.5 billion. Rodrigo said an “important fiscal adjustment” is happening right now under this plan. The idea is to make El Salvador a better place for private businesses to invest and help the economy grow faster.

Rodrigo also said that the IMF is preparing the first full review of the program. If everything continues to move the way it has, El Salvador could see even bigger gains. He stressed that the country is standing on a much stronger macroeconomic foundation now.

Plus, Rodrigo said that the huge improvements in security in El Salvador over the last few years will bring extra benefits that stack on top of the better economy.

After covering El Salvador and Honduras, Ziegler told the press they would finally move on to questions about Argentina, which has yet to adopt crypto yet but has its president involved in an ongoing international crypto fraud investigation.

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