El Salvador is ready to add more Bitcoin to its national reserves, the President of the central American country has revealed. Nayib Bukele, via Twitter, declared that starting Friday, November 18, El Salvador will purchase one Bitcoin one day. At present, the overall crypto market is struggling with a slump following the downfall and bankruptcy of the FTX crypto exchange. Bitcoin is currently trading at around the price point of $16,800 (roughly Rs. 13.7 lakh).
The country, that became the first in the world to legitimise Bitcoin as a legal tender in September 2021, continues to take a pro-crypto approach despite the ongoing downturn.
Bukele’s announcement comes a few weeks after its BANDESAL state bank refused to give away the details on El Salvador’s BTC purchases to ALAC El Salvador — a non-governmental anti-corruption bureau.
Despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) against using BTC as a legal tender, El Salvador has continued to show support for Bitcoin.
From establishing Bitcoin ATMs to creating a government-backed Bitcoin wallet called Chivo for Salvadorans, Bukele has been bringing initiatives focussed on expanding crypto acceptances and use cases in his country.
As per CryptoPotato, the Salvadoran treasury has a total of BTC 2,381 that currently amounts to $40 million (roughly Rs. 325 crore).
Back in May, El Salvador bought its largest ever dip of 500 Bitcoins at an average price of $30,744 (roughly Rs. 24 lakh) per BTC. Over the past year, however, the value of these BTC holdings dropped majorly from $103.9 million (roughly Rs. 850 crore) to roughly $45 million (roughly Rs. 372 crore).
As of July, El Salvador’s official Bitcoin wallet, called Chivo processed $52 million (roughly Rs. 410 crore) in these remittances. In the first five months of this year, the remittance deposit on Chivo rose by 3.9 percent, amounting to $118 million (roughly Rs. 933 crore). Chivo does not deduct any commission on facilitating transactions from BTC to US dollars.
