Despite the loss, El Salvador still bought another 15 million USD in Bitcoin

 Despite the loss, El Salvador still bought another 15 million USD in Bitcoin

El Salvador started buying Bitcoin when the price was around 50,000 USD and now each coin is around 36,400 USD.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele – who is famous for “bottoming” Bitcoin in every sell-off – announced the Central American country was buying more of the digital currency when the price dropped 11% on January 21. On Twitter, he wrote: "I didn't miss. El Salvador just bought 410 Bitcoins for only $15 million. Some people sold it for real cheap."

Based on his Twitter announcements, El Salvador bought at least 1,391 Bitcoins by January 21st. The country started buying Bitcoin in September 2021 when Bukele promoted plans to make El Salvador the first country to recognize Bitcoin as legal currency.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Photo: Bloomberg

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Photo: Bloomberg

Bitcoin was then worth about $50,000 a coin. El Salvador then continued to buy more when the digital currency peaked at nearly $69,000 in early November 2021. But since then, Bitcoin has lost almost half its value.

Currently, each coin is only around 35,400 USD, which means that El Salvador is losing a lot because of cryptocurrencies. After Bukele's buy announcement, Bitcoin continued to depreciate.

The 40-year-old president of El Salvador is quite popular in the Bitcoin community. He regularly buys when prices drop and pledges to build a tax-free Bitcoin City on the country's coast. He even joined a Twitter war of words with Bitcoin critics.

El Salvador Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya last week said the government had sold off Bitcoin, but did not disclose details. He said a group of officials will decide when to buy bottom. Bukele's government is also planning to build a public hospital for animals with trading profits.