Buying the Dip, Every Day
El Salvador has once again added to its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, summing up its strategy in four words, i.e. “Buying the dip, every day.” The latest buy continues a routine that has become a defining feature of President Nayib Bukele’s economic policy.
The country’s reserve now stands at 7,687 BTC, valued at more than $510 million, according to recent counts. Bitcoin.com News reported that El Salvador has been treating market weakness as an invitation to add to the national stack, scooping up coins even as bitcoin slid close to $66,000.
Between January and April alone, authorities added more than 1,600 coins, consistent with a long-running policy of acquiring close to one bitcoin per day regardless of short-term volatility.
That steady, mechanical approach, often described as dollar-cost averaging at the national level, has allowed the country to keep growing its holdings without trying to time the market. Each purchase is small, but the cumulative effect has pushed El Salvador into the ranks of the largest sovereign bitcoin holders.
The IMF Standoff Explained
The buying persists despite friction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because under a $1.4 billion financing agreement, the IMF has urged El Salvador’s public sector to halt bitcoin accumulation, and the fund has repeatedly questioned how the country reconciles its purchases with the deal’s terms.
Last year, El Salvador passed an IMF review even as it continued to expand its holdings, leaving observers puzzled over how both can be true at once.
Bukele has shown no sign of backing down as he has long insisted the country will not sell, framing its conviction with the mantra that 1 BTC = 1 BTC regardless of the U.S. dollar’s price. The government’s position is that the reserve is a long-term bet on bitcoin’s appreciation, not a trading position to be unwound during downturns.
The IMF, for its part, has argued that some of El Salvador’s reported accumulation amounts to shuffling existing coins rather than net new purchases, a characterization the government disputes. The opacity around exactly how and when coins are added has made the precise reserve figure difficult to pin down, even as the trend line points steadily upward.
A Long-Term Bet
El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, and although it later adjusted that status under IMF pressure, Bukele has kept the reserve growing. The strategy has drawn both criticism and imitation, with other governments and corporations studying the model of steady, programmatic accumulation.
The approach has also reshaped how the country talks about its finances, given officials now report bitcoin alongside traditional reserves, and Bukele frequently uses unrealized gains on the stack as a talking point during market upswings. Either way, the reserve has become a central part of the nation’s economic identity.
Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see whether the IMF tolerates El Salvador’s trajectory or escalates its objections, thereby helping determine how far Bukele can push his bitcoin experiment.
