El Salvador’s President Denies Report That Country’s Bitcoin Reserve Was Handed to a Private Operator

Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, has publicly pushed back against a recent report from El Pais, calling it false. The report had claimed that El Salvador’s strategic Bitcoin reserve, the actual Bitcoin the country holds as national policy, had been handed over to a private operator. Bukele says that simply did not happen.

According to Bukele’s explanation, the confusion comes from a mix up between two very different things. He said the language referenced from the IMF was actually about equity ownership in Chivo, the state linked digital wallet business, not about the country’s national Bitcoin reserve at all. He directly called the report of a reserve transfer entirely false.

Why it matters to keep these two things separate

Chivo is essentially El Salvador’s official state connected wallet business, the platform built to let citizens use Bitcoin for everyday transactions. The strategic Bitcoin reserve is a completely different thing, it refers specifically to the Bitcoin the government has been accumulating and holding as a long term national policy decision. According to this explanation, mixing these two separate things together is exactly how this story ended up becoming such a big headline in the first place.

How much Bitcoin does El Salvador actually hold right now

As of 4 September 2026, El Salvador’s official Bitcoin reserve stands at around 7,764 BTC, worth roughly 619 to 628 million dollars at current prices. This makes El Salvador the fifth largest known government holder of Bitcoin in the world, sitting behind larger holders like China, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine’s public officials, but ahead of countries like the United Arab Emirates and Bhutan.

When did they start accumulating, and what is their average purchase price

El Salvador began this journey back in September 2021, when it became the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender under President Bukele. Since then, the country has generally followed a steady daily buying approach, often described publicly as buying roughly one Bitcoin per day, adding to the reserve gradually over time rather than making a few large purchases.

Based on recent figures, the government’s total cost basis for its current holdings comes out to around 388.9 million dollars. That works out to an average purchase price somewhere in the range of 50,000 dollars per coin, reflecting years of buying spread across very different market conditions, from much lower Bitcoin prices in earlier years to today’s much higher prices.

Are they currently in profit or in loss

Based on the most recent figures, El Salvador is sitting on a solid unrealized profit. With total holdings worth around 628 million dollars against a total cost of about 388.9 million dollars, that puts the country’s paper gain at roughly 239 million dollars. This is an unrealized gain, meaning it exists on paper based on current market prices, and would only become a locked in profit if the country actually sold any of its coins, which it has shown no public intention of doing.

Does President Bukele personally hold Bitcoin, does he have his own exposure

This is a fair question, but there is no clear public disclosure confirming exactly how much personal Bitcoin, if any, Bukele holds outside of his role overseeing the national reserve. What is publicly known is that he has been the public face driving this entire national policy since 2021, frequently announcing purchases directly through his own social media accounts. Beyond his role managing the country’s official position, there is no verified public financial disclosure detailing his personal crypto holdings separate from the national treasury.

A recent wrinkle worth mentioning here

Adding a layer of relevant context to this story, the IMF confirmed on 3 September 2026 that no public government funds were used to grow El Salvador’s Bitcoin reserve since June 2025, since the country’s loan agreement with the IMF specifically restricts growing public sector Bitcoin holdings. Instead, the government said the recent increase in coins, growing from about 5,968 BTC to the current 7,764 BTC, came from private donations. However, the identities of these donors and the exact amounts each one gave have not been publicly disclosed. This detail matters here because it shows there is already an unresolved transparency question hanging over how the reserve has grown recently, separate entirely from the Chivo wallet confusion Bukele was responding to.

A take on where this leaves things

Numbers wise, this part of the story is fairly well documented, the reserve is real, it sits at roughly 7,764 BTC, and the country is currently sitting on a solid profit on paper. Where things get genuinely murky is everything around transparency. The country discloses its total coin count and publishes wallet addresses, which is more openness than most governments holding Bitcoin offer. But when it comes to who is actually funding recent additions to that reserve, and now, whether any part of the broader Bitcoin related business structure has quietly shifted toward private involvement, the public is largely being asked to trust official statements rather than independently verify the details.

None of this necessarily means anything improper happened here. It is entirely possible this really was just a case of an IMF document about Chivo wallet equity being misread as something bigger than it actually was. But between the undisclosed private donors funding recent Bitcoin purchases and a denied report about a reserve transfer, this is a good moment for anyone following the story closely to wait for verifiable proof, like an actual wallet address confirmation, rather than simply picking a side based on whichever public statement sounds more convincing.