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IMF confirms no new public-sector Bitcoin purchases by El Salvador despite government claims of daily accumulation
El Salvador’s government claimed throughout 2025 that it was buying one Bitcoin per day. However, a newly published IMF report directly contradicts those assertions.
IMF Reveals El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bluff
The July 15 report, part of the IMF’s Article IV consultation and first program review, makes clear that El Salvador has not bought any new Bitcoin since the $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) was approved in December 2024.
“The overall stock of Bitcoin held by the public sector has remained unchanged since program approval,” the IMF stated.
Throughout the year, President Nayib Bukele and El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office continued to post on social media that the country was accumulating Bitcoin—one per day.
Public-facing wallets showed an increase in holdings, and government tweets reinforced the idea of ongoing purchases.
Turns out the IMF did in fact make El Salvador stop Bitcoin purchases in order to get a fiat loan.
Footnote #9 states they have just been making it appear as if they have been continuing to buy but in fact have just been consolidating multi government wallets.
Around the same time, the Bitcoin Office claimed holdings exceeded 6,102 BTC. The media cited these numbers, which were widely repeated in crypto circles.
However, the IMF debunked this story in its official program review.
What Actually Happened
According to the Fund, the rise in Bitcoin wallet balances came from internal movements between government-owned wallets—not new purchases.
These wallet consolidations gave the illusion of buying but reflected no fresh market activity.
The report also disclosed “small fluctuations” in Bitcoin deposits in the government’s Chivo e-wallet. These, too, were addressed through internal corrective measures, not additional public funds.
Put simply, no taxpayer money has gone into buying more Bitcoin in 2025.
Local Newspaper Headline About El Salvador’s Bitcoin Reserve Value Soaring Above $725 Million After BTC All-Time High
More specifically, it stripped Bitcoin of legal tender status and agreed not to use public resources to acquire more.
The IMF’s new findings confirm that El Salvador is honoring its financial commitments.
Chivo Under Fire
The IMF report also cited “minor deviations” in performance criteria due to irregularities in the Chivo system. The Salvadoran government has agreed to fully end public-sector involvement in the Chivo Wallet by the end of July 2025.
Bitcoin Versus The IMF
In this new report, we explain how the IMF is both obsessed with Bitcoin & vehemently anti-Bitcoin. In the El Salvador IMF country reports, Bitcoin is the second most common word #Bitcoin is mentioned 319 times in two reports!! pic.twitter.com/12QkN4OEYK
This move aligns with a broader push for fiscal transparency and market discipline under the Fund-supported program.
Also, the government has committed to publishing financial information for state-owned enterprises and to unwind the public Bitcoin trust, Fidebitcoin.
As the end-of-July deadline for privatizing Chivo approaches, the Bitcoin community will be watching to see if El Salvador follows through—or keeps spinning a narrative at odds with the facts.
Bakkt Holdings has submitted a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $1 billion to support the company’s new Bitcoin and digital asset strategy. This decision follows the recent June 2025 update on its investment policy in which it is able to invest in Bitcoin and other crypto assets.
Anatoly Yakovenko:- Ethereum Pectra Upgrade went live on May 7 introducing 11 changes to the leading blockchain. It introduced 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) focused on user experience, staking, and Layer‑2 scaling enhancements.
These updates aim to make the network faster, more efficient, and easier to use.
In a companion blog post, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin also revealed that the blockchain is working at reducing Ethereum’s growing technical complexity to enhance accessibility.
However, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko isn’t impressed. In a recent post on X, he appeared to dismiss Ethereum’s biggest upgrade to date, casting doubt on its overall impact.
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko compared Solana’s V2.2 increase of 20% as being equivalent to 5 Ethereum Pectra upgrades. According to him, the mere 20% capacity is adding as much capacity to Solana as the 5 Pectra upgrades combined would add.
Interestingly, his comments came in as his blockchain, Solana introduced V2.2 update aligning with the Ethereum’s upgrade.
Solana’s 20% compute increase in 2.2 is like 5 pectra’s worth of capacity added to the network.
Solana 2.2 vs Ethereum Pectra – What Anatoly Yakovenko is Hinting At
Anatoly Yakovenko’s comparative stance while signifying the competitive rivalry, comes after Solana introduced its v2.2 update on May 6.
According to Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana V2.2 update on the network raises the per‑block compute limit from 50 million to 60 million CUs. This gives it a straight 20% jump in how much work each block can carry, implying more transactions per block.
Whereas Ethereum Pectra update effectively doubles the on‑chain blob capacity on the network. It raises the target blob count from 3 to 6 per block – slashing data‑availability costs and latency for all rollup protocols.
Solana’s Latest Update
As Buterin noted, this change “will help to double the capacity of layer‑2 networks,” delivering an immediate 2× boost to rollup throughput. It will help in paving the way for more scalable dApps and DeFi solutions.
Market reaction to both the upgrades is also evident. Solana Price continues to face pressure as ETH stands at 20% gain since its Pectra upgrade. As of press time, Ethereum (ETH) is trading at approximately $2,387.15, while Solana (SOL) is priced around $171.52.
In his statement, Anatoly Yakovenko is highlighting the contrast between Solana’s single, performance‑focused upgrade and Ethereum’s much broader and incremental Pectra Upgrade.
However, both the Solana and Ethereum’s updates are quite different in nature. Ethereum’s real “capacity” improvements heavily favor L2 while Solana’s 20% upgrade is a direct, on‑chain compute cap boost.
Pectra’s gains are diffused across UX, staking, cryptography, consensus messaging, and L2 data availability. It is not restricted to L1 throughput only.
This comes as the top blockchain berth according to Total Value Locked (TVL) remains secured by Ethereum.
However, Solana is rapidly gaining traction too. It is showcasing higher 24-hour trading volumes (at $3.75 billion) and a growing number of projects within its ecosystem. Solana’s Daily DEX trading volume at $2.83 billion also continues to outpace Ethereum’s $2.08 billion for the same day.
Top 5 Blockchains
With Pectra and Solana’s Agave 2.2 both live, the contest now hinges on which network can better balance throughput, security, and composability.
Further, as Ethereum eyes its next upgrade Fusaka by Q3, the technical arms race between Anatoly Yakovenko’s Solana and Ethereum is set to heat up.
(@aeyakovenko) 
