The International Monetary Fund’s board completed the second and third reviews of El Salvador’s $1.4 billion loan and released about $138 million anyway. The country had missed the Bitcoin test. Washington granted a waiver.
The 40-month Extended Fund Facility arrangement was designed, in part, to stop San Salvador from buying more bitcoin with public money. Certain performance criteria were not met, including on Bitcoin accumulation. The Fund said it granted waivers “based on strong corrective measures and renewed commitments” and approved an immediate disbursement of roughly $138 million, about SDR 101.96 million. It cited progress on financial-sector reform, fiscal transparency, anti-money-laundering rules, and the transfer of majority ownership and operational control of the state Chivo wallet to a private operator. The government kept a minority stake and custodial duties.
Holdings that rose after the first review in June 2025 were classified as documented private donations, not government purchases, the IMF said, including a November 2025 addition of 1,090 bitcoin then valued near $100 million. “No further Bitcoin accumulation is envisaged beyond the documented donations.” The Fund still wants the state to shrink its role in bitcoin, tighten crypto-asset rules, and publish what the public sector holds. Market tallies put the reserve near 7,800 bitcoin, or about $666 million at recent prices — a stack that survived the review because it was relabeled, not sold.
The second-order bargain is fiscal, not ideological. El Salvador keeps the coins. The IMF keeps the program on track by treating donations as outside the cap. That is a waiver with a footnote, not a conversion in Washington. If the next increment of bitcoin arrives without a clean private paper trail, the performance criteria will not be a press-release problem. They will be a disbursement problem. For now, $138 million bought another review cycle, and the reserve stayed on the books.
Image source: i.ibb.co