El Salvador’s Treasury Adds 410 Bitcoins After Price Crash, President Nayib Bukele Tweets Details

The Salvadoran government purchased the fresh load of Bitcoins for $15 million (roughly Rs. 110 crore).

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 24 January 2022 18:50 IST

El Salvador’s Treasury Adds 410 Bitcoins After Price Crash, President Nayib Bukele Tweets Details

Photo Credit: Nayib Bukele/ Facebook

El Salvador legalised Bitcoin in September 2021, the only country to have done so

Highlights

El Salvador might now have more than 1,500 Bitcoins
Bitcoin is trading around $35,000 (roughly Rs. 25 lakh)
Nayib Bukele remains firm on pro-crypto approach despite volatility

El Salvador, the central American country that legalised Bitcoin last year, has been multiplying the number of Bitcoins in its treasury. After Bitcoin's recent dip, El Salvador purchased a batch of 410 more tokens for $15 million (roughly Rs. 110 crore). The development comes after Bitcoin prices fell as low as $35,000 (roughly Rs. 25 lakh) from $42,270 (roughly Rs. 30 lakh) in recent days. President Nayib Bukele revealed more details about buying the dip on Twitter.

“Some guys are selling really cheap,” the 40-year-old Salvadoran President tweeted to his 3.4 million followers.

Nope, I was wrong, didn't miss it.

El Salvador just bought 410 #bitcoin for only 15 million dollars :partying_face:

Some guys are selling really cheap :man-shrugging::skin-tone-2: https://t.co/vEUEzp5UdU
— Nayib Bukele :flag-sv: (@nayibbukele) January 21, 2022

The country might now have more than 1,500 Bitcoins in its reserve, exceeding $50 million (roughly Rs. 375 crore) in value.

Marking its lowest value so far in 2022, Bitcoin is currently trading at around $33,645 (roughly Rs. 25 lakh) as per CoinMarketCap.

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The proposal of Russia's central bank to ban crypto activities is largely being pegged as the main reason why the crypto market crashed last week.

The price charts are presently drenched in red, indicating losses for majority cryptocurrencies.

Bukele, however, seems unaffected by Bitcoin's volatility and remains firm on his pro-Bitcoin approach going forward.

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.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, discussions on regulating the crypto sector are still going on.

India and Russia are amongst the countries where proposals to ban crypto activities reached central authorities in recent times.

Bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies, lost a significant amount of value in the last three months owing to the negative adoption sentiment from several governments around the world.

According to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin's current market cap of $665 billion (roughly Rs. 50,56,000 crore) is down from almost $1.3 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,00,00,000 crore) in November 2021.

Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and WeekendInvesting founder Alok Jain on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Radhika Parashar

Email Radhika

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