IMF: Will "continue efforts" to ensure El Salvador does not increase its bitcoin holdings

The international monetary fund said on Tuesday that it would "continue to work" to ensure that the total amount of bitcoin held by the Salvadoran government remains unchanged. In March, El Salvador reached a US $3.50 billion loan agreement with the IMF, one of the conditions of which was to "prohibit the voluntary accumulation of bitcoin by the public sector". Under the agreement, bitcoin was removed from legal tender status and merchants were no longer forced to accept it. However, despite the agreement explicitly restricting the increase in holdings, bitcoin holdings increased from 6,101.15 to 6,189.18, worth about $678 million. President Bukele has said: "It will not stop. If we did not stop when the world rejected us and the majority of'bitcoin people 'abandoned us, we will not stop now or in the future." Although El Salvador appears to have violated the terms of its loan agreement with the IMF over its bitcoin holdings, the IMF's report still considers the implementation of the entire loan program to be "performing well."