El Salvador Is Down 23% on its Bitcoin Investments on Paper

It’s been less than half a year since El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment began. So far, though, it’s not going as well as the small Central American nation has hoped, at least in terms of its investments in the cryptocurrency.

El Salvador’s Historic Bitcoin Endeavor

It’s safe to say that El Salvador and its president Nayib Bukele shocked the world last June when it was announced that the country will make history by becoming the first nation to adopt BTC as legal tender.

Three months later, El Salvador proceeded and voted the legislation in, which attracted negative attention from global financial organizations such as the IMF and the Bank of England.

While Bukele ironically dismissed the criticism, the nation continued with several notable engagements with bitcoin and the community. These included building BTC-oriented schools, mining the cryptocurrency using the nation’s volcanic power, and, perhaps most importantly, plans to build a Bitcoin City.

Among all those moves, the country also started to purchase portions of the asset frequently. So far, it has made nine such acquisitions, outlined by Bukele on Twitter. The latest one came days ago, worth $15 million.

Ahead of it, the nation had spent $70,561,800 on its BTC stash. This means that with the latest splash of cash, El Salvador has allocated approximately $85,600,000 in bitcoin.

Down 23% on its BTC Investment

Spending over $85 million in under six months on a highly volatile asset such as bitcoin is risky on its own. Buying ahead of the $69,000 price peak and experiencing the subsequent 50% retracement can certainly bring the heat on Bukele’s administration.

BTC reached the aforementioned ATH in mid-November but went on a ride south in the following few months. The latest retracement came in the past several days, with BTC losing over $10,000 to tap its lowest price point since before El Salvador legalized the cryptocurrency.

As of now, bitcoin trades around $36,500 after a $3,500 surge in the past 24 hours. Nevertheless, it still means that El Salvador is down by more than 23% on its BTC investment. This is because the entire stash of 1,801 coins is now worth slightly under $66 million.

However, Bukele still seems undeterred, joking on Twitter about a new position in McDonald’s. He even had some more harsh words about the non-believers yesterday.

Most people go in when the price is up, but the safest and most profitable moment to buy is when the price is down. It’s not rocket science

So invest a piece of your McDonald’s paycheck in #Bitcoin

Now go back to flip more burgers you lazy fvçk!

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) January 24, 2022