• Just days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made a new request as part of their $1.4 billion loan agreement…
• …one of the requests was for “no voluntary accumulation of Bitcoin by the public sector.”
• Another request includes setting a “ceiling of 0” for any government Bitcoin purchases.

El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, isn’t backing down when it comes to Bitcoin, flatly dismissing the latest request from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and declaring that the country “won’t stop” buying Bitcoin.

Bukele took to X to make his stance clear, stating:

“‘This all stops in April.’ ‘This all stops in June.’ ‘This all stops in December.’ Guess what? It’s not stopping. If it didn’t stop when the world turned its back on us and even many ‘Bitcoiners’ gave up, it certainly won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future.”

“This all stops in April.” “This all stops in June.” “This all stops in December.”

No, it’s not stopping.

If it didn’t stop when the world ostracized us and most “bitcoiners” abandoned us, it won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future.

Proof of work > proof of whining

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 4, 2025

These strong words from Bukele come just days after the IMF’s fresh request to El Salvador, which is part of their ongoing $1.4 billion loan negotiations.

Adding to the conversation, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, responded with his own bullish take, saying: “Bitcoin adoption is unstoppable.”

Currently, El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings stand at 6,101.18, valued at over $527 million.

Additional requests

Diving into the specifics, the IMF outlined these new conditions in their Country Reports 2025. They’re clearly stating “no voluntary accumulation of Bitcoin by the public sector,” and to clarify, they define this as:

“Voluntary accumulation of bitcoins includes purchase and mining of Bitcoins and excludes the accumulation of Bitcoins resulting from forfeiture, seizure, apprehension, custody or other form of property or possession by the government arising from law enforcement measures adopted in accordance with Salvadoran law.”

Furthermore, the IMF is insisting on a strict “ceiling of 0” when it comes to government spending on Bitcoin Purchases.

Approved bill

This latest push from the IMF follows El Salvador’s approval in January of a bill designed to tweak its Bitcoin law in an effort to align with the IMF’s loan requirements.

As part of these changes, El Salvador has already adjusted its legal stance, making it optional for businesses to accept Bitcoin as payment, moving away from the previous requirement. The government is also aiming to reduce the budget deficit by 3.5% of GDP over the next three years through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, while simultaneously working to boost reserves from $11 billion to $15 billion.

It’s worth remembering that El Salvador made history in 2021 by becoming the first nation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. At that time, the mandate was that all businesses must accept Bitcoin, a move that understandably grabbed the IMF’s attention.

Even back in November 2021, shortly after El Salvador’s Bitcoin move, the IMF issued a statement “recommend[ing] narrowing the scope of the Bitcoin law” and urging for “strengthening the regulation and supervision of the new payment system.”

This advice was reiterated in January 2022 when the IMF suggested El Salvador should reconsider making Bitcoin legal tender at all. More recently, the IMF has doubled down, recommending that El Salvador needs to limit the public’s exposure to the cryptocurrency.