Nayib Bukele—President of El Salvador—has taken to Twitter to announce the country’s plans to resume purchasing Bitcoin. The tweet mentions that El Salvador will buy 1 BTC everyday from 18 November 2022 onwards. However, it is not clear how long the buying program will continue.
Here is the tweet that added some zing to an otherwise morbid Thursday morning:
We are buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) November 17, 2022
El Salvador has made news due to its pro-crypto or rather a pro-Bitcoin approach. For perspective, the Central American country’s Bitcoin Law came into effect on 7 September 2021. As part of this law, Bitcoin was made legal tender, making it the first country to do so. The country even topped off this move with several financial incentives to regularize and popularize BTC’s usage.
How much BTC is El Salvador sitting on?
Currently, El Salvador has BTC worth $375 million in its reserves, going by the current price. However, with BTC feeling the tremors of the FTX contagion, the country is currently sitting on some realized losses—$60 million, give or take.
However, Nayib Bukele making a buy announcement on Twitter isn’t new. He is known for his dip-buying strategy when it comes to Bitcoin. Here is a tweet from May 2022 that explains it:
El Salvador just bought the dip! 🇸🇻
500 coins at an average USD price of ~$30,744 🥳#Bitcoin
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 9, 2022
As you can see, BTC was then trading at over $30,000—nearly double of where it is placed currently.
However, the dip buying hasn’t worked well for Bukele and El Salvador. In June 2021, when Bukele made an official announcement to take the “Bitcoin law” live, even the World Bank refused any help to boost El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption plans. In July 2021, the country received a downgraded CAA1 credit rating from Moody’s—which meant recognizing that El Salvador is at risk when it comes to loan defaults.
