Key Points
- El Salvador’s government has been purchasing one Bitcoin daily since March 16, adding to its crypto holdings.
- The nation has proposed using crypto for trade with Russia to circumvent sanctions.
El Salvador’s government has been consistently buying one Bitcoin each day since March 16.
This has resulted in the addition of 162 coins to the nation’s Bitcoin holdings.
Insights into the Cold Wallet
Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence has provided data that shows the Salvadoran government’s cold wallet currently holds 5,851 Bitcoin (BTC).
The market value of these holdings is around $356.4 million.
The inflow chart of the wallet indicates that it has been adding a single Bitcoin every day since March 16.
The most recent addition was made several hours ago, costing $60,500.
There have been a few occasions when the wallet made small BTC purchases of less than $100.
Crypto analyst EmberCN has calculated that the average cost of El Salvador’s BTC holdings is approximately $44,835.
This gives the country a floating profit of $93.45 million.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Strategy
These purchases are part of a commitment by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to buy one Bitcoin each day until the cryptocurrency becomes too expensive.
On the day the purchases began, El Salvador transferred 5,689 BTC into the cold storage wallet, which was then valued at $386 million.
Bukele referred to the wallet as the country’s first “Bitcoin piggy bank.”
To promote transparency around its Bitcoin ownership, the South American country has created a mempool space.
This allows the public to audit its crypto holdings.
Furthermore, Bukele’s government has proposed trading with Russia using crypto.
This idea was suggested as a method to avoid sanctions imposed on Russia by the U.S. and its allies due to Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
El Salvador uses the U.S. dollar as its national currency, which complicates trade with Russia as access to the USD has been significantly restricted by the sanctions.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s value has increased by 0.8% in the last 24 hours, and 5.1% over the past seven days.
It now has a market capitalization exceeding $1.2 trillion, which is over 53% of the total value of the crypto market.
