El Salvador will set aside more than $400 million in bitcoins, announces its president

El Salvador will set aside thousands of bitcoins worth $407 million as the cryptocurrency once again surges to record levels, President Nayib Bukele announced on his X account on Thursday. “We have decided to transfer a large part of our bitcoins to a cold wallet and to store this cold wallet in a physical safe on our national territory,” said the president.

“You can call it our first bitcoin piggy bank,” he added. A “cold wallet” protects cryptocurrency investments by keeping them offline to prevent hacks. Nayib Bukele shared a screenshot of the investment showing a total of 5,689.7 bitcoins, with a valuation of $406.6 million. “It’s not much, but it’s honest work,” he said, while bitcoin exceeded $73,000 on Thursday before falling slightly, still buoyed by the fallout from the launch of a new investment product indexed to its price on the American markets.

In September 2021, El Salvador was the first country in the world to adopt it as one of its legal currencies. But cryptocurrency has not convinced the entire population: according to a survey by the University of Central America (UCA), 88% of Salvadorans did not use it in their transactions in 2023.