El Salvador Claims To Have 1,120 Bitcoin Reserves Worth Rp938.8 Billion!

JAKARTA— The Salvadoran government acquired 420 more bitcoins on Wednesday, October 27. The feat was reported by President Nayib Bukele on social media, as the Central American nation continues its quest to double down on its boisterous cryptocurrency experiment.

The latest bitcoin purchase, worth nearly $25 million at current prices, marks the government's first acquisition of the cryptocurrency since September 20, when Bukele said it had bought 150 bitcoins.

“It was a long wait, but worth it. We just bought a drop! 420 new bitcoins,” Bukele wrote in a post on Twitter in English. The cryptocurrency is currently trading above $59,000 per bitcoin.

Earlier last month, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender alongside the US dollar, which Bukele said would lower the cost of sending money from Salvadoran migrants living abroad.

Traditional banks and other financial institutions usually charge large fees for processing money transfers.

Overall, El Salvador's treasury now holds 1,120 bitcoins, according to official data, worth nearly 66 million (Rp938.8 billion). This ownership makes El Salvador the official government or country that has the largest bitcoin reserves in the world.

The impoverished nation's economy relies heavily on about 6 billion dollars in remittances sent back to the country each year, or about a quarter of their gross domestic product, and about a fifth of households depend on cash inflows.