Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, recently announced that the Central American country has acquired 410 Bitcoin for a total of $15 million. In the last 4 months, El Salvador acquired the digital asset on several occasions during the market corrections.
The nation accepted Bitcoin as legal tender in the region during September 2021. Despite regional challenges and criticism from global financial institutions, like IMF and World Bank, El Salvador expanded its Bitcoin portfolio.
“I was wrong, didn’t miss the Bitcoin dip. El Salvador just bought 410 BTC for only 15 million dollars,” Bukele said in a Tweet on Friday. In December last year, El Salvador announced the acquisition of 21 BTC. The country, known for its technology-driven economic approach, supported foreign investments in the crypto sector.
After the acceptance of BTC as legal tender in the country, El Salvador announced tax exemption for foreign investors on BTC profits. As a result of El Salvador’s recent measures, the nation’s Chivo crypto wallet witnessed a surge in adoption.
Bitcoin’s Price Challenges
After posting gains of more than 60% in 2021, Bitcoin saw one of its worst corrections during the first three weeks of 2022. The digital asset crashed by more than 25% during the mentioned period. On 21 January 2022, BTC dipped below $36,000 for the first time since 4 August 2021. In comparison to its all-time high levels, Bitcoin is down by 44%.
Furthermore, the latest dip in the price of BTC had a negative impact on the overall value of El Salvador’s holdings. While the country has avoided selling its Bitcoin assets, the total market value of its holdings has decreased over time.
“BTC’s Relative Unrealized Loss (7d MA) just reached a 5-month high of 0.081. [The] previous 5-month high of 0.080 was observed on Friday 21 January 2022,” Glassnode Tweeted.
