IMF clears $139 million payout to El Salvador despite Bitcoin rule breach
Regulation & Gov ·
The fund waived a penalty tied to continued Bitcoin purchases while pushing the country to wind down its crypto holdings.
The International Monetary Fund's executive board signed off on a fresh $139 million disbursement to El Salvador, according to Bloomberg reporting cited by wublockchain.xyz, after issuing a waiver for the government's failure to stick to limits on acquiring more Bitcoin. The approval came as the board wrapped up its second and third evaluations of El Salvador's $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility program.
Despite the compliance lapse, the fund pointed to stronger-than-anticipated economic performance in the country, projecting output growth of 4.5% for the current year and 4% by 2027. Those figures formed part of the justification for releasing funds even as El Salvador had technically stepped outside the bounds of its earlier commitments.
Alongside the disbursement, the IMF pressed San Salvador to stop adding to its Bitcoin holdings going forward and to keep scaling back the state's footprint in cryptocurrency markets. A specific recommendation centered on the Chivo wallet, the government-linked crypto platform, which the fund wants shifted entirely into private hands rather than remaining under public exposure.
The waiver illustrates a tension embedded in the lending arrangement: El Salvador has leaned into Bitcoin accumulation as policy, yet its IMF program requires restraint on exactly that activity. Granting forgiveness for the breach while still disbursing funds suggests the fund is prioritizing the country's broader fiscal and growth trajectory over strict enforcement of the crypto-related terms, at least for now.
Coverage of the reviews — one account from the Bloomberg-sourced report and a separate description of the fund completing its evaluations — aligns on the dollar figures and the structure of the waiver, though full details of how the privatization of Chivo exposure would be executed remain unspecified. What is not yet clear is whether El Salvador will formally comply with the halt on further Bitcoin purchases, or whether future reviews will again require waivers if the government continues its accumulation strategy.