LatinNews Daily - 5 March 2025

*El Salvador’s authoritarian President Nayib Bukele has said that El Salvador continues to strengthen its “strategic reserves” of cryptocurrency bitcoin with the acquisition of another bitcoin on 4 March.  According to government media outlet, La Página, the country has accumulated a total of 15 bitcoin in recent days. Writing on social media, President Bukele said “no, it’s not stopping” in reference to the government’s purchase of bitcoin, which in September 2021 became legal tender, straining relations with international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He shared a post from the government’s bitcoin office indicating that El Salvador had 6,101.18 bitcoin worth US$527.17m as of 4 March. His continued push for bitcoin comes despite the recent announcement that the IMF had signed off on a 40-month extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for El Salvador, worth US$1.4bn. The arrangement included key concessions from the Bukele government regarding bitcoin – that it agreed to make bitcoin acceptance by the private sector voluntary, while “the public sector’s participation in bitcoin-related activities will be confined”.