El Salvador Bitcoin Ownership Questioned

Transactions were made through Bitso in 2021-2022, but it’s unclear if Bitfinex stored El Salvador’s bitcoin.

Moises Alvarado’s report, published by the local press in El Salvador, has sparked inquiries regarding the actual proprietorship of the Bitcoins (BTC) that President Nayib Bukele transferred to a cold wallet a week ago.

80% of the 5,690 BTC transmitted to El Salvador’s “piggy bank” wallet originated from addresses associated with Bitfinex, an international cryptocurrency exchange, according to Alvarado.

Alvarado says, “Various indications render it improbable that these crypto assets are owned by the Salvadoran state,” citing the government’s close ties to this cryptocurrency exchange.

The 4,569 BTC in El Salvador’s cold wallet were deposited in five transactions between March 13 and 14, according to an investigation.

The remaining 1,121 BTC were transmitted from the hot wallet associated with the Chivo Wallet ecosystem to the specified address.

Alvarado issues a warning regarding the potential ramifications of this transaction, stating that a portion of the bitcoin exchanged “could have belonged to citizens, and one possibility is that Chivo Wallet has been defunded as a result of this action.”

According to the report, the verifiable Bitcoin transactions were conducted through Bitso, an exchange primarily serving the Latam market, in 2021 and 2022.

Alvarado emphasizes that it is impossible to confirm whether Bitfinex was the contracted institution to store the bitcoin that El Salvador utilized as an investment vehicle during these years.

Rafael Lemus, an economist from El Salvador, declared:

It is impossible to be certain that those 5,000 bitcoin belong to the Salvadoran State, especially considering that the majority comes from Bitfinex. Perhaps those who left Chivo Wallet are from the State, but not even there we can be sure as we have no way to verify.

Presidential Bitcoin Strategy in El Salvador

Recently, Bukele increased his bitcoin holdings by twofold, declaring that El Salvador would continue to purchase one bitcoin per day until “it becomes prohibitive with fiat currencies.”