Latam Insights Encore: I'm Convinced: Bukele Outsmarted the IMF, Even if We Don't Know How

Welcome to Latam Insights Encore, a deep dive into Latin America’s most relevant economic and crypto news from the past week. This edition explores how President Nayib Bukele has continued to purchase bitcoin, complying with the IMF policies of non-bitcoin accumulation established in their credit facility deal.

Latam Insights Encore: Bukele Outsmarted The IMF

While I was still not convinced about the ability of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to skirt a bitcoin non-accumulation commitment made with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to receive a $1.4 billion credit facility line, two newsworthy events that took place this last week changed my mind.

The first one has to do with statements that Rodrigo Valdes, Director of Western Hemisphere Department at the IMF, made during the institution’s 2025 Spring Meetings. Valdes highlighted that, and this is important, under their “performance criteria,” El Salvador was not purchasing more bitcoin.

He stated:

I can confirm that they continue to comply with their commitment of non-accumulation of bitcoin by the overall fiscal sector, which is the performance criteria that we have.

Read more: Is Someone Lying? IMF Confirms El Salvador’s Compliance With Bitcoin Non-Accumulation Commitment

While we don’t have the specifics of the agreement, in a letter of intent, the Salvadoran government stated that they would neither “accumulate new bitcoins in our portfolio” nor “issue or guarantee any type of Bitcoin-indexed or denominated debt or tokenized instruments implying a liability for the government.”

The second event that convinced me about Bukele having a workaround to this deal was the statement of Economy Minister Maria Luisa Hayem. The minister recently remarked that, even with all these restrictions, the government was steadfast in accumulating bitcoin. When asked about it, she stated that there was “a commitment of President Bukele to keep accumulating assets as a way to do precisely that.”

Read more: El Salvador Committed to Buying Bitcoin Despite IMF Deal, Minister Says

This public admission and the IMF’s blessing of El Salvador’s performance can only mean one thing: Bukele has found a workaround to the IMF’s rules, and is being obscure about it purposefully to avoid revealing his ways.

The only other possibility encompasses risking this deal to continue acquiring bitcoin, and Bukele is not so dense. Yes, bitcoin is important, but not so important to risk a loan clawback from an international organization and the subsequent economic fallout this would entail.

So, congratulations, President Bukele, you managed to outsmart the IMF, even though we (still) don’t know how.