It's now been one month since El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender — and our estimates suggest the country has already made a profit of $3.2 million on the BTC it owns.
Bitcoin’s bullish surge has transformed the way El Salvador’s Chivo ATMs are being used, according to the country’s president.
Nayib Bukele says deposits to buy Bitcoin across the nation’s network of 200 machines now outweigh withdrawals.
Remittances, where workers abroad send funds home to their loved ones, also appear to be on the rise using Chivo. The president’s latest figures suggest this now amounts to about $2 million a day. Bukele added:
“This is surprising so early in the game.”
Following widespread nerves about the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in the Central American country, Bukele may be starting to feel vindicated by his radical decision to put the cryptocurrency on par with the U.S. dollar.
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One Month Later
Today marks one month since El Salvador’s controversial Bitcoin Law came into force.
Every consumer who downloaded the Chivo wallet was able to claim a Bitcoin reward worth $30 — and those who held it since Sept. 7 would have gained 10%.
The Salvadoran government also now owns 700 BTC. Bukele revealed on Sept. 6 that his administration had purchased 400 BTC to hold in reserve. He later confirmed that the country had “bought the dip” twice — on Sept. 7 and Sept. 20 — purchasing a total of 300 BTC when the cryptocurrency’s value suffered a sudden decline.
Based on Bitcoin’s prices on each of these three days at the time Bukele made his announcements on Twitter, the cost of this investment would have been approximately $34.5 million.
Fast forward to now — with BTC trading at about $54,500 — and the value of El Salvador’s holdings now stand at $37.8 million, resulting in a cool profit of $3.2 million in the space of one month.
