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El Salvador acquired over 13 BTC since March 1, despite IMF deal
El Salvador acquired 13 Bitcoin (BTC) since March 1, despite International Monetary Fund (IMF) pressure on the country’s public sector to stop accumulating the decentralized store of value asset.
According to the El Salvador Bitcoin Office, the country’s Bitcoin treasury holds a total of over 6,105 BTC, valued at more than $527 million at current prices.
The Central American country typically acquires BTC at a steady pace of 1 coin every 24 hours. However, on March 3, El Salvador purchased 5 BTC in a single day.
El Salvador struck a deal with the IMF in December 2024 for a $1.4 billion loan from the organization. As part of that deal, the government of El Salvador agreed to rescind the status of BTC as legal tender in the country and scale back public sector involvement with Bitcoin.
El Salvador Bitcoin holdings. Source: El Salvador Bitcoin Office
Related: How can Bukele still stack Bitcoin after IMF loan agreement?
El Salvador continues stacking despite IMF pressure
El Salvador’s Congress amended its Bitcoin laws in January 2025 to comply with the IMF loan agreement. Lawmakers repealed the previous version of the law in a 55-2 vote.
Despite the repeal, the government continued stacking Bitcoin, purchasing two BTC in a single day on Feb. 1 and continuing its daily accumulation of the digital currency.
On March 3, the IMF issued a new request pressuring El Salvador to stop accumulating BTC and stipulated that the country could not issue debt or tokenized securities tied to Bitcoin.
President Nayib Bukele responded to the IMF pressure and said that El Salvador will continue buying BTC — characterizing the IMF’s continued pressure as “whining.”
Source: Nayib Bukele
“If it didn’t stop when the world ostracized us and most ‘bitcoiners’ abandoned us, it won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future,” Bukele emphatically stated.
The government of El Salvador’s unapologetic pro-Bitcoin stance caused several major crypto firms to announce that they are relocating to the Central American country.
On Jan. 7, Bitfinex Derivatives announced it was relocating from Seychelles to El Salvador. Stablecoin issuer Tether followed suit on Jan. 13 by announcing it was moving its headquarters to El Salvador.
Magazine: El Salvador’s national Bitcoin chief has been orange-pilling Argentina
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said in a March 28 letter that institutions under its oversight, including banks, can now engage in crypto-related activities without prior approval. The announcement comes as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that digital asset derivatives wouldn’t be treated differently than any other derivatives. The FDIC letter rescinds a previous instruction under former US President Joe Biden’s administration that required institutions to notify the agency before engaging in crypto-related activities. According to the FDIC’s definition: ”Crypto-related activities include, but are not limited to, acting as crypto-asset custodians; maintaining stablecoin reserves; issuing crypto and other digital assets; acting as market makers or exchange or redemption agents; participating in blockchain- and distributed ledger-based settlement or payment systems, including performing node functions; as well as related activities such as finder activities and lending.” FDIC-supervised institutions should consider associated risks when engaging in crypto-related activities, it said. These risks include market and liquidity risks, operational and cybersecurity risks, consumer protection requirements, and Anti-Money Laundering requirements. On March 25, the FDIC eliminated the “reputational risk” category from bank exams, opening a path for banks to work with digital assets. Reputational risk is a term that underscores the dangers banks face when engaging with certain industries. Related: FDIC resists transparency on Operation Chokepoint 2.0 — Coinbase CLO While the US crypto derivatives market had been a gray zone due to regulatory uncertainty, that has been changing. On March 28, the CFTC withdrew a staff advisory letter to ensure that digital asset derivatives — a type of trading product — will not be treated differently from other types of derivatives. The revision is “effective immediately.” The change in tone from the CFTC and FDIC follows a new environment for crypto firms under US President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump has vowed to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet.” Crypto firms are shifting strategies to align with the easing regulatory climate. On March 10, Coinbase announced the offer of 24/7 Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures. In addition, the company is reportedly planning to acquire Derebit, a crypto derivatives exchange. Kraken, another US-based cryptocurrency exchange, has also made moves in the derivatives market. On March 20, it announced the acquisition of NinjaTrader, which would allow the exchange to offer crypto futures and derivatives in the United States. Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions The XRP (XRP) market is flashing warning signs as a bearish technical pattern emerges on its weekly chart, coinciding with macroeconomic pressures from anticipated US tariffs in April. Since its late 2024 rally, the XRP price chart has been forming a potential triangle pattern on its weekly chart, characterized by a flat support level mixed with a downward-sloping resistance line. A descending triangle pattern forming after a strong uptrend is seen as a bearish reversal indicator. As a rule, the setup resolves when the price breaks below the flat support level and falls by as much as the triangle’s maximum height. XRP/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView As of March 28, XRP was testing the triangle’s support for a potential breakdown move. In this case, the price may fall toward the downside target at around $1.32 by April, down 40% from current price levels. XRP’s descending triangle target echoes veteran trader Peter Brandt’s prediction. He warned of a possible decline to as low as $1.07 due to a “textbook” head-and-shoulders pattern forming on the daily chart. XRP/USD daily price chart. Source: Peter Brandt Conversely, a rebound from the triangle’s support level could lead the price toward its upper trendline at around $2.55. A clear breakout above this resistance level risks invalidating the bearish structures altogether, instead sending the price toward the previous high of $3.35. The broader market, meanwhile, has turned increasingly cautious in response to President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on auto imports, set to go live on April 3. These tariffs are likely to result in higher prices for US manufacturers and consumers. The February 2025 US CPI report already showed a 0.2% month-over-month increase. Related: Is altseason dead? Bitcoin ETFs rewrite crypto investment playbook St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem estimated that these tariffs might contribute approximately 1.2 percentage points to inflation, with about 0.5 percentage points stemming from direct effects and 0.7 percentage points from indirect effects. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting rates to a target range of 400–425 basis points in June has fallen to 55.7% as of March 28, down from 67.3% a week earlier and 58.4% just one day ago. Target rate probabilities for the June Fed meeting. Source: CME A delayed rate cut would reduce the flow of capital into speculative markets, stalling momentum for XRP and other digital assets that thrive in a low-rate, risk-on environment. This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. Darkweb threat actors claim to have hundreds of thousands of user records — including names, passwords and location data — of Gemini and Binance users, putting the apparent lists up for sale on the internet. The Dark Web Informer, a Darkweb cyber news site, said in a March 27 blog post that the latest sale is from a threat actor operating under the handle AKM69, who purportedly has an extensive list of private user information from users of crypto exchange Gemini. “The database for sale reportedly includes 100,000 records, each containing full names, emails, phone numbers, and location data of individuals from the United States and a few entries from Singapore and the UK,” the Dark Web Informer said. Source: Dark Web Informer “The threat actor categorized the listing as part of a broader campaign of selling consumer data for crypto-related marketing, fraud, or recovery targeting.” Gemini didn’t immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. A day earlier, Dark Web Informer said another user, kiki88888, was offering to sell Binance emails and passwords, with the compromised data reportedly containing 132,744 lines of information. Source: Dark Web Informer Speaking to Cointelegraph, Binance said the information on the dark web is not the result of a data leak from the exchange. Instead, it was a hacker who collected data by compromising browser sessions on infected computers using malware. In a follow-up post, the Dark Web Informer also alluded to the data theft being a result of user’s tech being comprised rather than a leak from Binance, saying, “Some of you really need to stop clicking random stuff.” Source: Dark Web Informer In a similar situation last September, a hacker under the handle FireBear claimed to have a database with 12.8 million records stolen from Binance, with data including last names, first names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and residential addresses, according to reports at the time. Binance denied the claims, dismissing the hacker’s claim to have sensitive user data as false after an internal investigation from their security team. Related: Binance claims code leak on GitHub is ‘outdated,’ poses minor risk This isn’t the first cyber threat targeting users of major crypto exchanges this month. Australian federal police said on March 21 they had to alert 130 people of a message scam aimed at crypto users that spoofed the same “sender ID” as legitimate crypto exchanges, such as Binance. Another similar string of scam messages reported by X users on March 14 spoofed Coinbase and Gemini attempting to trick users into setting up a new wallet using pre-generated recovery phrases controlled by the fraudsters. 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