PANews reported on December 19 that according to Cointelegraph , El Salvador has reached a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and plans to receive financial support in the next 40 months. As part of the agreement, the country will make merchants accepting Bitcoin payments voluntary, while gradually reducing the government's involvement in Bitcoin-related projects, including gradually withdrawing from the management of the state-supported wallet application Chivo.
The IMF said the move would significantly reduce the potential risks posed by Bitcoin projects, while clearly limiting the public sector to specific participation in Bitcoin economic activities. In addition, taxes will be paid only in U.S. dollars, not Bitcoin. The agreement still needs to be approved by the IMF's Executive Board, marking the end of El Salvador's four-year negotiations with the IMF since it adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in June 2021. The IMF has repeatedly warned that the speculative nature of Bitcoin could pose financial risks to the country. The agreement will also facilitate additional financing from institutions such as the World Bank, with a total financing amount of more than $3.5 billion.
Despite this, Max Keiser, a Bitcoin advisor to the President of El Salvador, shrugged it off on social media X, saying that Bitcoin use in the country has “never been more active and continues to grow.” However, the survey showed that 92% of Salvadorans do not use Bitcoin for transactions, an increase from 88% in 2023.
