IMF Exposes the Cracks in El Salvador’s Bold Bitcoin Experiment

El Salvador’s Bitcoin dream hits a reality check—IMF data reveals adoption isn’t living up to the hype.

The numbers don’t lie: Despite government claims of widespread daily Bitcoin use, IMF scrutiny shows sluggish adoption. The ‘Bitcoin Beach’ narrative? More like a puddle.

Why it matters: First-mover status isn’t enough when citizens prefer cash over crypto. Volatility and usability hurdles keep real-world usage low.

Finance jab: Another case of politicians treating monetary policy like a meme stock—buy high, ignore the crash.

Revelation from IMF review

Despite arranging the deal with the IMF, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele continued highlighting the country’s new purchases of Bitcoin. The first EFF arrangement review, released this July, contains information that disputes these claims. 

In the letter attached in the appendix of the review, the President of El Salvador Central Bank, Douglas Pablo Rodríguez Fuentes, and the Minister of Finance, Jerson Rogelio Posada Molina claim that “the stock of Bitcoins held by the public sector remains unchanged” while mentioning minor breaches of the deal in regard of daily bitcoin accumulation in March.

On top of that, there is a small but essential detail hidden in footnote nine that reads “Increases in Bitcoin holdings in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Fund reflect the consolidation of Bitcoin across various government-owned wallets.” 

It means that El Salvador stopped Bitcoin purchases in February 2025, which is in line with the deal made with the IMF. The IMF’s review outlines positive trends in the El Salvador economy, concluding that the IMF should immediately disburse SDR 86.16 million, equivalent to approximately $118 million. The overall satisfaction of the fund’s board indicates that El Salvador has indeed dropped its support for Bitcoin, not only as a legal tender, but also as a strategic reserve worth accumulating, opting instead for a USD loan from the IMF.

El Salvador’s BTC purchases after deal with IMF

The deal with the IMF required El Salvador not only to revoke Bitcoin’s status as legal tender but also to stop accumulating bitcoins (according to the IMF, it creates economic risks). However, instead of following the imposed rules, the country continued the daily BTC purchasing spree. 

In March, the IMF reminded Bukele that Bitcoin purchases should be halted to meet the requirements outlined in the deal; however, he blatantly rejected the IMF’s requests and stated that Bitcoin accumulation WOULD not stop.

“This all stops in April.” “This all stops in June.” “This all stops in December.”

No, it’s not stopping.

If it didn’t stop when the world ostracized us and most “bitcoiners” abandoned us, it won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future.

Proof of work > proof of whining https://t.co/9pC0PoY3YQ

In the April interview with Bloomberg, economy minister of El Salvador, Maria Luisa Hayem, confirmed that Bukele is not stopping purchasing bitcoins, calling Bitcoin “an important project.” 

Concerns raised by crypto community members and journalists

The IMF’s review suggests that Salvador didn’t buy all the bitcoins it claims it bought. The lack of transparency regarding El Salvador’s alleged purchases has been a concern raised multiple times by several crypto enthusiasts in the past.

2k BTC in other wallets means they could daily stack for 5+ years and make it seem like they are buying them. By then many things in the world will change around Bitcoin and maybe they could actually buy them again.
This is speculation but until we have any real talk that's all…

One of the crypto activists who scrutinizes all things associated with Bitcoin independently and publicly, a person using the handle Pledditor, raised their concerns back in November 2023, pointing out a discrepancy in the figures related to El Salvador’s Bitcoin reserve.

If you add up all of those buys together that they have listed, it should come out to 2,758 BTC

But they have listed 3,134 BTC pic.twitter.com/WkpCiaH7Af

The BBC article released in December 2023 suggests that El Salvador Bitcoin estimations are not backed by anything except for Bukele’s tweets and screenshots from the website, Nayib Tracker, whose creators didn’t comment on the issue back then. 

However, on July 20, the Nayib Tracker creator, Elias Zerrouq, took to X to express his surprise over the fact that President Bukele is using the wrong data and the media is not talking about it.

As the creator of that 3rd party site I'm still surprised that was never a bigger thing. He basically copied wrong data, proudly represented it as his data and true. Zero big news outlets verified or even noted this. Weirdest anecdote I have

Since then, X accounts posting BTC purchase announcements began to use a different website. However, the questions persisted. On July 20, five days after the IMF and El Salvador’s officials announced that the country had purchased no Bitcoin following the deal’s signing, the Bitcoin Office released a post regarding yet another BTC purchase by El Salvador.

🇸🇻EL SALVADOR JUST BOUGHT MORE BITCOIN pic.twitter.com/660qVLV3qe

Nayib Bukele or other top officials didn’t react to the news as of July 22.