The IMF completed two program reviews for El Salvador and released new financing. El Salvador missed some Bitcoin-related criteria and received waivers. The country’s reported Bitcoin reserve
The International Monetary Fund completed the second and third reviews of El Salvador’s $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility on October 1, 2026, releasing $138 million even though the country had not observed some performance criteria tied to Bitcoin accumulation. One week later, on October 8, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office reported a national reserve of 7,798 BTC, seven coins more than a week earlier and worth roughly $640 million to $645 million. The Fund expects no accumulation beyond documented private donations, and Salvadoran authorities say donations are precisely where the new coins come from.
The Executive Board did not declare the Bitcoin conditions met. It granted waivers, a mechanism that allows a disbursement to proceed when a borrower has missed a target but has offered corrective measures and renewed commitments that the Board finds acceptable. In practical terms, the lender recorded a breach and chose not to interrupt the program over it.
Total program $1.4B Extended Fund Facility Released Oct 1 $138M After reviews two and three Duration 40 mo. Approved February 26, 2025 Bitcoin reserve 7,798 BTC on October 8, 2026Sources: IMF statement of October 1, 2026; El Salvador Bitcoin Office via Bitcoin.com.
Three further points in the review concern the state’s role in crypto. Majority ownership and operational control of Chivo, the government-backed wallet launched in 2021, have passed to a private operator. The Fund wants fuller reporting of public-sector crypto holdings and tighter supervision of digital asset providers. And Dan Katz, the IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director, called for the remaining public exposure to Chivo to be fully unwound.
Nothing in the statement obliges El Salvador to sell what it already holds.
The program separates three things that headlines tend to merge: holding existing Bitcoin, buying more with public resources, and receiving coins from private donors. Only the second is restricted. In September 2026 the IMF disclosed that Salvadoran authorities had supplied documentation showing that additions since the first review in June 2025 were financed by private donations, with no public funds involved.
That explanation accounts for the arithmetic of the reserve tracker, which still moves at the pace President Nayib Bukele set when he announced a one-Bitcoin-per-day policy. It does not settle every question. The Fund’s public statements do not name the donors and do not include a transaction-by-transaction audit, so it would be inaccurate to say the IMF independently verified each transfer. The waivers granted in October also show that the documentation did not resolve all accumulation criteria.
El Salvador’s reported Bitcoin reserve Reported snapshots in BTC, not independently audited balances Early 2025 – IMF program documentation6,070 October 1, 2026 – public reserve tracker~7,792 October 8, 2026 – Bitcoin Office7,798 Added since early 2025 +1,728 BTC Growth +28.5% Last seven days +7 BTCMeasured against the IMF’s early-2025 figure, the reserve has grown by about 1,728 BTC, or 28.5%. The published data does not show how much of that increase was bought and how much was donated, since the donation documentation covers only the period after June 2025. The market value is also not a profit figure, because the government has never published a full record of what it paid for its coins.
El Salvador’s economy has outperformed the Fund’s expectations, which the IMF attributes to improved security and stronger investor confidence. Public debt nevertheless remains close to the size of annual output, and that is the reason San Salvador amends laws and privatizes a wallet instead of abandoning the lender.
Real GDP growth 3.9% → 4.5%+0.6 pts
Gross public debt / GDP 87.6% → 85.0%-2.6 pts, still high
Gross international reserves $4.81B → $5.35B+$0.54B
Overall fiscal balance / GDP -2.9% → -2.3%Deficit narrows
2025 estimate and 2026 projection. Source: IMF, October 2026.
The Fund’s objection is not limited to price swings. A volatile asset on a public balance sheet complicates financial reporting and liquidity planning, and it raises the question of whether borrowed or budget money ends up exposed to it. The Bitcoin reserve, at roughly $640 million, equals about 12% of the gross international reserves projected for 2026, a share large enough to matter to a lender focused on fiscal consolidation. Supporters of Bukele argue that a scarce digital asset diversifies national reserves and may produce long-term gains, an outcome that depends entirely on future prices.
The state is leaving the business of operating consumer Bitcoin infrastructure. According to the IMF’s September statement, the government kept a minority stake in Chivo and responsibilities linked to the custody of customer assets after the transfer, and the Fund now wants that residual exposure removed. Private crypto companies face no ban as a result. The country keeps its regulatory framework for digital assets.
For holders and observers of the reserve, the decisive variable is whether each new coin continues to qualify as a documented private donation. Fuller public disclosure of donors would allow outsiders to separate donated Bitcoin from state-financed purchases, something the current statements do not permit.
The arrangement approved in February 2025 runs for 40 months, which places its end in mid-2028 and leaves several more reviews in which the accumulation criteria will be tested again. The IMF has also asked for improvements to the regulatory framework, including possible amendments to the Digital Asset Issuance Law, the statute under which tokenized offerings are issued in El Salvador. Any revision of that law would reach private issuers and service providers that have had no part in the dispute over the government’s own wallet.
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