El Salvador to Buy One BTC Per Day, President Nayib Bukele Tweets Plan

Bitcoin is currently trading at around the price point of $16,800 (roughly Rs. 13.7 lakh).

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 18 November 2022 12:22 IST

El Salvador to Buy One BTC Per Day, President Nayib Bukele Tweets Plan

Photo Credit: Facebook/ Nayib Bukele

Despite warnings from the IMF, El Salvador has continued to keep a pro-crypto approach

Highlights

El Salvador last purchased its big BTC dip in May
At the time, Bukele had purchased BTC 500
The Salvadoran treasury has a total of BTC 2,381

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.

We are buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) November 17, 2022

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.

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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).

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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.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, El Salvador, Bitcoin, Nayib Bukele

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More