El Salvador Is Sitting on $84M Profit From Its Bitcoin Holdings (2024)

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El Salvador Is Sitting on $84M Profit From Its Bitcoin Holdings? ›

El Salvador's bitcoin {{BTC}} treasury is sitting on $84 million in unrealized profit on the holdings it first started acquiring in September 2021.

El Salvador says it's sitting on an $84 million profit after bitcoin's record-breaking run. One of the few countries to adopt bitcoin as legal tender has apparently seen an $84 million profit from bitcoin, boosted by the cryptocurrency's recent rally.

President Nayib Bukele recently announced El Salvador's plan to buy one bitcoin every day, aiming to continue this practice until it becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies. This initiative has pushed the nation's bitcoin holdings to a substantial total of 5,690 BTC, valued at approximately $400 million.

The program, aimed at attracting wealthy individuals, requires a significant donation of one million US dollars in Bitcoin or USDT. This investment grants Salvadorian residency, eventually leading to citizenship. However, the specifics of this transition from residency to citizenship remain vague.

El Salvador took a different path toward digital payments. In 2021, in order to promote financial inclusion and job creation and facilitate remittances, it became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.

As of 2024, Bitcoin's highest price ever recorded is $73,844. However, the price has retreated pretty quickly due to the anticipation of Bitcoin halving (which happened on April 20, 2024) and several other factors. You can find the current Bitcoin price on the BitDegree crypto tracker.

Bitcoin Price Summaries

Bitcoin's price today is US$68,698.29, with a 24-hour trading volume of $14.73 B. BTC is +1.30% in the last 24 hours. It is currently -4.18% from its 7-day all-time high of $71,695.75, and 4.20% from its 7-day all-time low of $65,930.04.

According to the Bitcoin research and analysis firm River Intelligence, Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator behind Bitcoin, is listed as the top BTC holder as of 2024. The company notes that Satoshi Nakamoto holds about 1.1m BTC tokens in about 22,000 different addresses.

Nominal GDP of USD 32.5 billion in 2022.

Is Bitcoin tax free in El Salvador? ›

Noted for pioneering Bitcoin adoption as an official currency, El Salvador made strides in 2023 by eliminating all taxes associated with "technological innovation." This includes income tax, capital gains tax, and property tax. Consequently, earnings and capital gains derived from cryptocurrencies enjoy tax exemption.

Salvadoran citizens who naturalize in the United States may keep their Salvadoran citizenship only if they were born in El Salvador. (See more info about dual citizenship in the USA and El Salvador.)

In 2001, the USD became legal tender and the country's only official currency (33). Later, on 7 September 2021, El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender through the Bitcoin Law.

The volatile bitcoin price resulted in El Salvador's bitcoin investments having lost approximately US$45 million with a bitcoin balance worth about US$76.5 million by September 2023. Mass adoption has been slowed by the absence of a coherent educational process across the country.

The minimum wage for employees in El Salvador is typically 2.07 USD per hour, amounting to ~365 USD per month for a typical 44 hour work week.

El Salvador now owns 5,750 Bitcoin, worth about $353 million at today's prices, according to the government.

GDP in El Salvador is offically estimated to be $30 Billion US dollars at the end of 2023. The economy of El Salvador is offically reported as having a debt-to-GDP ratio of 81.3%, indicating El Salvador's debt level is $24 Billion.

This means that Tesla missed out on an extra $500 million in profit had it not sold its Bitcoin in March 2021 and June 2022. Tesla still holds 9,720 Bitcoins, worth around $400 million at current prices. It will be interesting to see whether it holds on to the tokens in 2024 or sells.

India: Over 100 million people in India own cryptocurrencies, making it the country with the most cryptocurrency owners, according to Triple-A. United States: China, Russia, Nigeria, and the EU are the next five countries with the most #BTC trading volume on exchanges.

Known Bitcoin reserves held by governments account for 2.7% of the total 21 million supply of bitcoins, with the largest being the US Government with over 210,000 bitcoins worth more than $13bn at the time of writing.