El Salvador’s Bitcoin narrative just cracked. The IMF’s July 15, 2025 report confirms the government hasn’t bought a single new Bitcoin this year. Despite daily claims from President Bukele and the National Bitcoin Office that the country is stacking one BTC per day, the IMF says the total public-sector holdings remain unchanged. What looked like accumulation was just internal wallet shuffling. No fresh purchases. No taxpayer funds deployed. Just movement between state-controlled wallets to simulate growth.
The illusion worked for months. Public-facing wallets showed rising balances. Bukele posted updates. Crypto media echoed the story. But the IMF’s audit pulled the curtain. Footnote 9 in the Article IV consultation spells it out: the increase in Bitcoin reserves came from consolidating assets across government wallets. No market activity. No new buys. Just optics.
The IMF’s $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility, signed in December 2024, included strict conditions. El Salvador agreed to stop using public money to buy Bitcoin and to unwind its legal tender status. That reversal happened in January. Bitcoin is no longer mandatory for merchants. The Chivo Wallet is being privatized. The Fidebitcoin trust is being dissolved. The government committed to publishing quarterly reports on crypto activity. The IMF is helping draft new asset custody and AML rules.
On-chain data shows El Salvador holds 6,237 BTC, worth roughly $738 million at current prices. That number hasn’t changed since the loan deal was signed. The Bitcoin Office claimed 30 BTC were added in July. The IMF says no. The discrepancy isn’t small. It’s systemic. The country’s Bitcoin strategy is now under international supervision. The IMF wants transparency. The government is playing theater.
The Chivo Wallet itself caused compliance issues. When users sold BTC for cash, the platform didn’t liquidate the underlying asset. That led to unintended buildup in state reserves. The IMF flagged it. The government responded with internal fixes. But the optics remain. The public was told El Salvador was buying. The IMF says it wasn’t.
El Salvador branded itself as “Bitcoin Country.” Now it’s under audit. The IMF’s report is clear. The accumulation narrative was a facade. The holdings are static. The purchases were fiction.
Sources:
https://beincrypto.com/el-salvador-bitcoin-purchase-lie-imf-report/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/el-salvador-hasn-t-bought-bitcoin-deal-imf