The 250% surge in Bitcoin ( BTC ) in the last 12 months made El Salvador, which invested part of its reserves in the cryptocurrency, achieve an unrealized profit of US$84 million with the digital asset. The small Central American country purchased around 2,800 units of BTC between 2021 and 2022, at an average price of US$42,599, according to the website “Nayib Bukele Portfolio Tracker”, which tracks the amount of BTC acquired by the Salvadoran government.
This Tuesday morning (12), Bitcoin was trading at US$72,192, close to its historic high , according to the CoinGecko aggregator. Because of the rise, the country’s cryptocurrency portfolio already has US$206.34 million in BTC.
The increase reverses the nation’s losses, which had investment in the red over the last two years, attracting criticism from politicians and economists around the world, in the midst of the “winter” of cryptocurrencies. In 2022, Bitcoin collapsed after the collapse of the FTX exchange and other companies in the crypto market.
It was only from the end of 2023, amid expectations with the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs (index funds) from the United States, that El Salvador finally began to make a profit . Despite the gains, the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, said he will not dispose of the digital asset. “We won’t sell, of course,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in late February.
In addition to acquiring cryptos for the national treasury, El Salvador was the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender in 2021 , alongside the US dollar. The measure attracted criticism from several organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Even in the sights of analysts, the country managed to honor payments on the most profitable emerging bonds last year , with returns of 70%, drawing the attention of JPMorgan, Eaton Vance and PGIM Fixed Income, who recommended or purchased the nation’s debt.
The population of El Salvador, however, has not yet definitively adopted Bitcoin . The complexity of cryptocurrency, usability flaws and volatility are some of the criticisms made by Salvadorans, who still prefer to use the dollar in transactions.
