El Salvador Buys Over 160 New Bitcoins

A government-owned cold wallet in El Salvador has been buying one bitcoin every day since March 16, adding about 162 new coins to the country’s bitcoin holdings since then, according to news reports on Friday. The latest transaction was made several hours ago at a cost of $60,500.

The reports, citing blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, indicate that the government-owned wallet currently holds about 5,851 bitcoins with a market value of $356.4 million.

The reports also indicate that there have been several days when the wallet has made small purchases of bitcoins worth less than $100.

The purchases are part of a promise by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to buy one bitcoin every day. On the day El Salvador began buying, it transferred about 5,689 bitcoins to the cold wallet, with the value of the holdings at the time being $386 million. Bukele described the wallet as the country's first Bitcoin piggy bank.