El Salvador's national Bitcoin reserve is worth $618 million, and an October 2026 IMF review found that every coin added since June 2025 came from private donations rather than public funds, allowing the country to keep growing its holdings despite limits written into a $1.4 billion loan program.

The Central American nation held between 7,760 and 7,792 BTC as of late September to early October 2026, according to on-chain records and independent trackers such as BitcoinTreasuries.net, which confirm the government's official figures. The exact count varies slightly depending on the snapshot date. The dollar value has ranged between approximately $598 million and $660 million as Bitcoin's price moved.

How much has the reserve grown?

The holdings have expanded by more than 1,700 BTC since the IMF program began. When the Extended Fund Facility started, El Salvador held approximately 5,968 to 6,070 BTC. The National Bitcoin Office continues to report incremental additions.

That growth occurred under constraints. The IMF approved the $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility in February 2025, and an Extended Fund Facility is a longer-term loan program typically paired with policy commitments the borrowing country must meet. El Salvador's commitments included limits on public-sector Bitcoin accumulation — in plain terms, the government agreed to stop spending state money on additional coins.

What did the October review decide?

The IMF reviewed the program in October 2026 and determined that Bitcoin added since June 2025 arrived through private donations, not government resources. Because the additions qualify as donations, the public-sector accumulation limits were waived for those coins.

The review also addressed the Chivo wallet, the state-linked digital wallet launched alongside El Salvador's Bitcoin policy. Following its IMF commitments, the government transferred control of Chivo to a private operator, which now runs the wallet's operations separately from the state.

Why does this set a precedent?

For the IMF, the October review establishes a practical precedent: program limits on public-sector accumulation apparently do not cover Bitcoin that arrives through private donations, at least in El Salvador's case. That distinction now defines the boundary of the arrangement.

The donation route raises its own questions. Who is donating, how much, and under what terms will determine how credible the arrangement looks in future IMF reviews. If the source of new coins ever shifted back toward state funds, the accumulation limits would come back into force.

How did El Salvador get here?

El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021, becoming the first country to take that step. The country began accumulating Bitcoin at roughly the same time it granted the asset official status.

The IMF had long opposed the policy, and the 2025 loan program brought that tension into the open. The resulting arrangement was a compromise: limits on public spending on Bitcoin, a restructured Chivo wallet placed under private control, and continued scrutiny through periodic reviews.

President Nayib Bukele's administration has repeatedly reiterated a long-term holding strategy. The government has signaled it plans to keep the coins, not trade them.

What comes next?

The spread between the low and high valuations — roughly $598 million versus $660 million — shows how quickly a national reserve built on Bitcoin can rise or fall on paper. The next test arrives at the following program review, when the IMF will again examine whether El Salvador's additions stay on the donation side of the ledger or drift back into territory the 2025 agreement restricted.