IMF Says Private Donors, Not Taxpayers, Funded El Salvador’s Latest Bitcoin Additions

El Salvador’s Bitcoin reserve kept growing after the government agreed to limit public-sector crypto buying. The International Monetary Fund now says it has verified how that happened: private donors supplied the Bitcoin, not taxpayers.

The distinction resolves one part of a long-running clash between the country’s public messaging and the terms of its $1.4 billion IMF program. It also opens a new question that the latest disclosure does not answer: who donated the coins?

In its September 3 statement, the IMF said Salvadoran authorities provided documentation showing that Bitcoin accumulation since the first program review reflected private donations and used no public resources, while also recording an agreement that no further accumulation beyond those documented donations is expected. The same review says majority ownership and operational control of the Chivo e-wallet moved to an unnamed private operator, the government kept a minority stake and custodial responsibilities, and IMF staff agreed on a package that could release about $140 million after Executive Board approval and completion of prior actions.

🇸🇻EL SALVADOR JUST BOUGHT MORE BITCOIN

One BTC per day, every day!

Consistency = winning. Proof 👇 pic.twitter.com/myqwTuarQf

— The Bitcoin Office (@bitcoinofficesv) August 28, 2026

The word “bought” created the confusion

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office has continued to describe reserve additions as purchases, including an August 28 post saying the country had bought more Bitcoin and was adding one coin per day. That language naturally suggested government spending.

Decrypt reports that the reserve held 5,968 BTC when the IMF program began in December 2024 and recently stood at 7,764 BTC. The outlet also notes that the government announced a 1,090 BTC addition worth roughly $100 million last November.

The IMF’s explanation is narrower: documentation reviewed under the lending program showed that the additions after the June 2025 first review came from private donations. The statement does not identify the donors, list individual transfers or explain why official communications repeatedly used purchase language.

Bitcoin is only one piece of the agreement

IMF staff reached agreement with El Salvador on the combined second and third reviews of a 40-month financing arrangement. If the IMF Executive Board approves the reviews and agreed prior actions are completed, the country would gain access to about $140 million.

The fund also said majority ownership and operational control of Chivo, the government-backed wallet launched with the 2021 Bitcoin law, have moved to a private operator. The government retains a minority stake and responsibility for custody of customer assets.

Those changes fit the program’s broader effort to reduce direct public-sector exposure to Bitcoin. The IMF says digital-asset rules, oversight and risk management still need modernization, while El Salvador is working to make its holdings across multiple wallets more transparent.

Over the past six weeks, the Bitcoin Office team has been giving bitcoin lessons to the staff at the Bitcoin Zones in Apopa and Panchilmalco. Paso a paso, we are winning across the country.

And where El Salvador is going is to the place Generation Bukele wants it to be. https://t.co/F6DAbsaGKb

— Stacy Herbert 🇸🇻🚀 (@stacyherbert) September 1, 2026

The reserve remains politically and financially important

El Salvador still promotes Bitcoin as part of its national economic identity, from education programs to the public reserve tracker. The latest IMF review does not reverse that strategy; it draws a line around who paid for the reserve’s recent growth.

That is meaningful for public finances, but it is not full transparency. A privately donated asset can still be held or administered by a public institution, and the public still has an interest in knowing the source, terms and governance of large transfers.

For now, the clearest conclusion is also the most limited one: the IMF says it reviewed documentation and found no public money behind the post-review Bitcoin additions. Until the donors and transfer terms are disclosed, the funding mystery has been narrowed—not eliminated.

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