Three years ago, on September 7, 2021, the country of El Salvador shocked the world when its president, Nayib Bukele, announced that the country would be adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. Not only that, the county also began buying BTC to add to its reserves, growing that stash over the years. Now that the country is three years into its BTC bet, let’s take a look at how it’s going so far and if this investment was a wise decision in the long run.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Holdings
The very first Bitcoin purchase by El Salvador, according to President Nayib Bukele, was made on September 6, 2021, one day before the announcement of the adoption of BTC as a legal tender. At the time, the country bought 400 BTC at an average price of $46,811, costing $18.724 million at the time.
Since then, though, the Bitcoin treasury has grown largely, with multiple large buys following the initial one. Only one year from the first purchase, the country had gotten its BTC stash above the 2,300 BTC level. However, it didn’t stop there, with more Bitcoin purchases to come.
At the time of writing, the country of El Salvador now owns a total of 5,867 BTC. The Nayib Tracker website shows that the average cost of this Bitcoin stash is $43,884, and with the BTC price sitting above $55,000 at the time of writing, it means that the country is seeing impressive profits on its holdings.
The website data shows that the country is now sitting on a profit of $34.55 million from its Bitcoin purchases, This translates to a 25.88% gain on its BTC purchases over the last three years. Additionally, its BTC stash makes El Salvador the third-largest government holder of Bitcoin in the world. According to data from Arkham Intelligence, it falls behind the US government with 203,238.74 BTC and the UK government with 61,245.01 BTC.
El Salvador Not Relenting
Despite seeing notable profits on its Bitcoin holdings, President Nayib Bukele has revealed that the country has no plans of selling its BTC. The president has chosen to not look at its BTC holdings in terms of dollar value, but rather on a one-to-one scale – meaning 1 BTC is equal to 1 BTC regardless of the dollar value.
As for adoption Bitcoin has legal tender, the president has also publicly stated that residents have not been forced to adopt the cryptocurrency. The country continues to operate with two legal tenders – the US dollar and Bitcoin, and residents are able to use whichever one is convenient for them.
Nevertheless, El Salvador remains committed to its Bitcoin mission. It launched its own BTC monitoring website that allows users to track a number of BTC metrics. Users are also able to track the country’s BTC holdings on this website.
Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com
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