The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is on a Bitcoin buying spree. And, it’s showing no signs of ending anytime soon. His government made the most of the latest Bitcoin dip by adding 420 BTCs to its treasury earlier today, according to a tweet by Bukele. It said,
“It was a long wait, but worth it. We just bought the dip!”
The President followed up the tweet with another, claiming that the recently-acquired tokens were already in profit within hours of the purchase. The time period between the two tweets saw Bitcoin’s price hike by 0.4% on the charts.
How do we make a profit if 1 #BTC= 1 #BTC?
We have a trust fund accounted in USD, but the trust is funded by both USD and BTC.
When the BTC part revalues in comparison to the accounting currency (USD), we are able to withdraw some USD and leave the trust with the same total.
— Nayib Bukele ?? (@nayibbukele) October 27, 2021
What’s more, Bukele went on to explain that the profit was made due to a rebalancing of the country’s Bitcoin trust. It holds both BTC and US Dollars, through which the government can withdraw the acquired profits in USD while keeping its crypto-holdings intact.
The recent purchase of 40 BTCs amounted to $24.6 million and raised the country’s total Bitcoin holdings to 1,120 BTCs. This was worth $66.2 million, at press time. El Salvador’s average BTC purchase value comes up to around $53,000 per coin.
Bukele has proven to be an opportunist in the Bitcoin game for a long time since he often uses dips in the cryptocurrency’s price to increase his country’s holdings at a lower price. El Salvador’s first Bitcoin purchase was on 6 September this year, when it bought 200 BTCs in two different batches.
The next day, when the digital asset was made legal tender across the nation, the country bought another 150 BTCs. After that, on 19 September, an additional 200 BTCs were added to El Salvador’s Bitcoin trust, taking the total to 700 BTCs.
#Bitcoin Con la inversión hecha ayer, El Salvador tiene 700 criptomonedas llegando a un total en dólares de poco más de $35M. Con el precio actual del bitcoin, el país podría perder hasta $11 millones de dólares… pic.twitter.com/sCGKdqYRo3
— Disruptiva (@Disruptiva2) September 20, 2021
Now, despite the criticism thrown Bukele’s way for the manner and opacity of these purchases, the crypto-community couldn’t help but notice the significance of the purchase value.
420 is a popular term used within the millennial stoner culture. One Reddit user named EGarrett, for instance, noted,
“I’m starting to believe he’s doing this on purpose. Actually, now that I check he was born in 1981 so he probably is. Funny to see the results of millennials starting to inherit the world.”
In any case, some of the apprehension towards making Bitcoin legal tender in the island nation seems to be dying down. In fact, reports suggest many have been exchanging their greenbacks for Bitcoins.
Bukele also recently revealed that more money is being fed into the Chivo ATMs being used for Bitcoin transfers than was being withdrawn from them.
He also shared data that suggested residents are sending up to $2 million in remittances through Bitcoin daily while skirting the high commission fees they were charged previously.
