Bukele Denies El Salvador Transferred $632M Bitcoin Reserve to Private Operator

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele denied reports that his government transferred the country's Bitcoin reserves to a private operator. The claims originated from an IMF press release stating that majority ownership and operational control of the Chivo digital wallet had been transferred to a private entity, while the government retained a minority stake.

Bukele said the report was 'totally false' and clarified that the transfer only referred to the Chivo wallet, not the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. He pointed readers to the IMF document itself, which states that shares in Chivo were transferred, not the sovereign coin stockpile.

The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has grown to about 7,764 BTC since September 2021 and is valued near $630 million. The transfer of majority ownership and operating control of the Chivo wallet was written into El Salvador's EFF program, which aims to modernize the legal, regulatory, and supervisory framework for digital assets.