El Salvador Buys One Bitcoin per Day, Launches New Transparency Website

Key Takeaways

• El Salvador launches a new website to enhance transparency around Bitcoin treasury holdings.
• Website confirms El Salvador’s commitment to buying one Bitcoin daily, aligning with President Bukele’s vision.
• El Salvador has mined nearly 500 BTC using geothermal energy from a volcano.

The Bitcoin Office of El Salvador (ONBTC) has introduced a website  that people to verify the country’s treasury holdings.

This platform is a tailored version of block explorer Mempool Space. Perhaps more importantly, however, it confirms El Salvador consistently purchases one Bitcoin every day.

El Salvador, the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, is trying to make its Bitcoin holdings more transparent.

According to the site, the country’s total Bitcoin holdings are close to 5,750 BTC, which, at the time of writing (May 15 2024), is worth nearly $360 million.

Site Reveals Daily Purchases But Not Full Holdings

The site addresses previous criticisms of secrecy surrounding the administration’s handling of state funds for Bitcoin acquisitions.

It confirms ongoing additions to the national Bitcoin reserves. Meanwhile President Nayib Bukele made a commitment to buy one Bitcoin a day “until Bitcoin becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies”.

However, it remains uncertain whether the address the website monitors includes all of El Salvador’s Bitcoin.

President Nayib Bukele has indicated that “a big chunk” of the nation’s Bitcoin reserves has moved to this address. He has not, however, confirmed whether this represents its entire reserves. It is also possible there is more BTC in other, undisclosed, addresses, not visible to the public.

Since 2021, El Salvador has used  a geothermal power plant powered by the Tecapa volcano to mine nearly 500 BTC.

These Bitcoin, valued at about $29 million, have been mined using a relatively small amount of geothermal energy from the volcano.

The state-owned power plant uses the geothermal energy produced by the volcano to generate 102 megawatts (MW) of power. Of this, 1.5 MW are specifically allocated to cryptocurrency mining.

About the Author

Teuta Franjkovic

Teuta is a seasoned writer and editor with more than 15 years of experience. She has expertise in covering macroeconomics and technology as well as the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. She has worked for several publications as a journalist and editor, including Forbes, Bloomberg, CoinTelegraph, Coin Rivet, CoinSpeaker, VRWorld and Arcane Bear. Teuta began her professional career in 2005, working as a lifestyle writer at Cosmopolitan in Croatia. From there, she branched out to several other publications, covering mainly business and the economy. She then turned her attention to the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain, believing that crypto is among the most important inventions in the history of humanity. Her involvement in fintech began in 2014 and she has since lent her expertise in writing, editing and gathering information about the world of crypto, blockchain, NFTs and Web3. An all-round news hound, mentor, editor, and writer, Teuta enjoys teamwork and good communication. She holds a WSET2 diploma and has a thing for chablis, punkrock music and shoes. She also holds a double MA in Political science and Entrepreneurship.

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