The International Monetary Fund has confirmed that El Salvador did not use public funds to accumulate bitcoin after the first review of its loan program, saying in a press release that documentation provided by Salvadoran authorities shows the additional holdings came from private donations. The disclosure accompanied a staff-level agreement on the combined second and third reviews of the country’s 40-month Extended Fund Facility, announced on 3 September 2026.
Donations, Not Public Funds
The fund said the bitcoin added since the first review came from private donors, and that no further accumulation beyond those documented donations is expected. The finding explains how El Salvador’s holdings have kept rising even though the fund’s earlier review had required the public sector’s bitcoin balance to remain unchanged. The IMF did not identify the donors or say how much each contributed, and it stressed that the documentation was provided by Salvadoran authorities. The disclosure follows months of questions over how the country’s stockpile kept expanding while it remained inside the lending program.
A National Reserve That Keeps Growing
El Salvador’s official tracker has climbed to 7,764.37 BTC after the balance jumped by more than 1,000 BTC in November and has continued receiving one bitcoin a day. President Nayib Bukele said in March of last year that the country’s bitcoin purchases would not stop. El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021, though the original IMF agreement later made private-sector acceptance voluntary, required taxes to be paid in U.S. dollars, and limited public-sector purchases. The government has also transferred majority ownership and operational control of its Chivo wallet to a private operator while retaining a minority stake and custody of customer assets.
Oversight and the Road Ahead
El Salvador and IMF staff also agreed on steps to strengthen the legal and supervisory framework for crypto assets and improve oversight of bitcoin held by the public sector. The government has already expanded its national bitcoin treasury and kept up its one-bitcoin-a-day strategy, moves that have drawn scrutiny as the fund weighs how the program fits within its safeguards. The staff-level agreement, which still requires approval from the IMF’s executive board, keeps the lending program on track toward its next disbursement and signals continued cooperation between the fund and the government on bitcoin policy.
