El Salvador Bitcoin Reserve: Bukele Denies Private Operator Transfer

What Started the Controversy

On September 3, 2026, the International Monetary Fund issued press release no. 26/285, announcing that staff and Salvadoran authorities had reached a staff-level agreement on the combined second and third reviews of El Salvador's 40-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement. The deal would unlock roughly $140 million for the country.

Buried inside that routine-sounding announcement were two sentences that would ignite a firestorm. The first concerned the Chivo wallet, the government-backed mobile payments app launched in September 2021 alongside the Bitcoin Law. The IMF wrote that "public participation in the e-wallet Chivo has been substantially unwound," and that "majority ownership and operational control have been transferred to a private operator, while a minority stake and custodial responsibilities for customer assets have been retained by the government."

The second concerned the country's Bitcoin holdings. The Fund said Salvadoran authorities had provided documentation verifying that "Bitcoin accumulation since the first review reflects private donations and that no public resources were used."

How El País Framed It

Spanish daily El País published a report on September 4, 2026, claiming El Salvador had transferred "majority ownership and control" of more than 7,763 cryptocurrencies, valued at over $632 million, to a private operator. The article cited the IMF statement as its source.

Here's where the two versions collide. The IMF applied the phrase "majority ownership and operational control" to the Chivo e-wallet — a retail payments app. El País applied that same phrase to the 7,763 coins held by the government in its strategic reserve. The numerical figure in El País's article tracks the total in El Salvador's public reserve tracker, not a Chivo customer balance.

Bukele's Response

President Bukele responded through his account on X on September 4, 2026, calling the report "totally false." He wrote that outlets were "lying to their readers" and that the claim El Salvador had transferred its Bitcoin reserves to a private party was completely untrue.

Bukele linked back to the same IMF press release that El País had cited, arguing the text refers only to the transfer of Chivo shares — an operation he said had been offered publicly about a year and a half earlier — and "NOT the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve."

He also pointed readers to other parts of the IMF release, including references to a primary fiscal surplus, growth above expectations, investor confidence linked to security gains, and what the Fund described as significant poverty reduction supported by more efficient public services.

The IMF's Donations Claim

The second major revelation from the IMF statement was that El Salvador's Bitcoin accumulation since the first review (completed mid-2025) came from private donations, not public funds. The Fund said authorities had provided documentation verifying this, and that "no further Bitcoin accumulation beyond the documented donations is expected."

This is significant because it resolves a long-running tension. The IMF had previously said in July 2025 that official BTC holdings had not increased since the loan agreement, and that apparent additions were internal wallet movements. Now the Fund is acknowledging the reserve did grow — but attributing that growth to donations rather than government purchases.

Critics have pointed out that the IMF accepted private documentation without naming or quantifying the donors. As one analysis put it, El Salvador's Bitcoin is "the most publicly auditable sovereign treasury on the planet" — roughly 7,762 BTC visible on-chain — yet the source of the funds behind recent additions remains opaque.

The Daily Buy Continues

Despite the IMF's urging to halt public-sector Bitcoin purchases, the National Bitcoin Office posted on September 5, 2026: "El Salvador just bought more Bitcoin." The reserve reached 7,762 BTC this week, worth roughly $598 million at Bitcoin's price near $77,000 per coin.

The government has maintained a policy of buying one Bitcoin per day regardless of price since becoming the first nation to make Bitcoin legal tender in 2021. Between January and April 2026 alone, the government added more than 1,600 coins to its reserve — a pace that has shown no sign of slowing five years into the experiment.

What This Means for Travelers

For visitors to El Salvador, this controversy is largely a policy and governance story — but it has real-world implications for how you'll experience the country:

• Bitcoin acceptance is now voluntary. The legal-tender status was rescinded through a legislative amendment tied to the IMF deal. Merchants can choose whether to accept BTC.
• Chivo is winding down. The government wallet is being transferred to a private operator, so travelers should not rely on it for payments.
• Bitcoin Beach still exists. El Zonte and the surrounding coast remain a hub for Bitcoin culture, even if everyday usage has declined.
• USD is king. The US dollar remains the primary currency for everyday transactions across the country.

If you're planning a trip and want to understand how Bitcoin actually works on the ground in El Salvador — where it's accepted, where it isn't, and how to navigate the changing landscape — ia.sv can help you plan with real-time, government-sourced intelligence.

The Bigger Picture

This dispute is about more than a single press release. It's a window into the ongoing tension between El Salvador's Bitcoin-first identity and the constraints of its IMF relationship. The country is simultaneously:

• Accumulating Bitcoin at a rate of one coin per day
• Unwinding Chivo and transferring it to private hands
• Unlocking $140M in IMF funding
• Maintaining a fiscal surplus and reducing debt

The result is a nuanced picture: El Salvador is not abandoning Bitcoin, but it is restructuring how the state interacts with it. The strategic reserve remains under government control (according to Bukele), while the retail-facing Chivo wallet moves to private ownership.

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