First Day of Bitcoin as Legal Tender: El Salvador Buys the Dip, Country's BTC Stash Grows

Bitcoin is now legal tender in El Salvador, and the country’s bitcoin stash has grown to 550 coins. The Salvadoran government started buying the cryptocurrency Monday ahead of the Bitcoin Law taking effect. On Tuesday, President Nayib Bukele said El Salvador bought the dip.

El Salvador Buys More Bitcoin

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law came into effect Tuesday, Sept. 7, making BTC a national currency alongside the U.S. dollar.

El Salvador has been buying bitcoin ahead of the Bitcoin Law taking effect. President Nayib Bukele announced Monday that his government had started buying bitcoin. “El Salvador has just bought its first 200 coins. Our brokers will be buying a lot more as the deadline approaches,” he wrote. A few hours later, he tweeted: “El Salvador just bought 200 new coins. We now hold 400 bitcoin.”

The price of bitcoin was rising leading up to the Bitcoin Law entering into force. However, it dipped around 11:00 a.m. EST on Sept. 7, falling from above $51K to below $43K. At the time of writing, the price stands at about $46,883.

After the price dipped, President Bukele tweeted: “Buying the dip. 150 new coins added.”

The Salvadoran president followed up with another tweet at 11:25 a.m. EST as the price of bitcoin stabilized at the $46K level. He wrote, “It appears the discount is ending. Thanks for the dip @IMFNews. We saved a million in printed paper,” adding:

El Salvador now holds 550 bitcoin.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has spoken against countries adopting bitcoin as legal tender on several occasions. In late August, IMF’s legal counsels said that cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, came with “substantial risks” and are inadvisable as legal tender.

Sept. 7 got off to a bumpy start for El Salvador when users complained that the government’s bitcoin wallet app, Chivo, was unavailable on various platforms, including Apple and Huawei. When the app became available on Huawei, it was unable to cope with user registration, Bukele explained, adding that the government decided to unplug it in order to connect to more servers and increase capacity. The issue appeared to have been resolved at the time of writing.