IMF updates assessment, confirms El Salvador’s Bitcoin additions came from donations

The International Monetary Fund has reversed course on one of its more awkward claims about El Salvador’s Bitcoin stash. After spending the better part of a year insisting that the country’s reported Bitcoin accumulation was nothing more than coins being shuffled between government wallets, the IMF now confirms that El Salvador’s holdings have genuinely grown, funded entirely by private donations rather than public coffers. The concession matters because it removes a cloud that had been hanging over El Salvador’s $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility program. A staff-level agreement covering the second and third reviews of that program could unlock roughly $140 million in disbursements, pending Executive Board approval. From wallet shuffling to real growth Rewind to about a year ago. The IMF’s position was that El Salvador’s Bitcoin reserve hadn’t actually increased at all. The fund argued that what looked like purchases were simply internal transfers, coins moving from one government-controlled wallet to another with no net change in holdings. Now the IMF has formally updated its assessment. Every Bitcoin added to the government’s holdings since June 27, 2025, came from private dona...