IMF Waives El Salvador Bitcoin Breach

The IMF’s Executive Board completed El Salvador’s second and third Extended Fund Facility reviews on Oct. 1, 2026. The IMF El Salvador Bitcoin waiver is part of that decision: the Fund granted waivers after authorities missed performance criteria including Bitcoin accumulation limits, and unlocked an immediate disbursement reported as about $138–139 million.

What happened

Crypto.news reports that the board released SDR 101.96 million, worth about $138 million at the Fund’s stated conversion, and notes that Bloomberg cited $139 million. Briefs.co’s Oct. 1 account frames the payout as $139 million after the Bitcoin accumulation waiver. Both pages place the reviews inside El Salvador’s roughly $1.4 billion EFF.

The board found several performance criteria unmet, including the Bitcoin accumulation condition. Waivers followed what the IMF described as corrective measures and renewed commitments. Documentation supplied by El Salvador, as summarized in the crypto.news account, showed recent Bitcoin additions as private donations with no public resources used directly. The Fund’s forward-looking statement, carried in both secondary accounts, is that no further Bitcoin accumulation is expected beyond documented donations.

Chivo is also in the review package. Crypto.news says majority ownership and operational control of Chivo moved to a private operator, with the government retaining a minority stake and custodial responsibilities at that stage. Dan Katz, the IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director and chair of the board discussion, said residual public-sector involvement “should be fully unwound,” according to that account.

On growth, both accounts cite IMF projections of 4.5% real GDP growth in 2026 and 4% in 2027. Crypto.news adds an estimated 3.9% expansion in 2025 and notes reserve and fiscal figures from the review; those extras are not needed to state the shared growth pair.

Why it matters

The waiver is not a green light for state-funded Bitcoin purchases. The shared reading is narrower: past accumulation tied to documented donations was waived, and the program expectation is no further accumulation beyond those donations. That distinction matters for anyone tracking whether El Salvador’s public sector is still buying Bitcoin with public resources.

Chivo’s partial privatization is a separate compliance track from the accumulation limit. Majority control has moved; residual state exposure remains to be unwound, on the IMF’s stated view. Bitcoin law changes in 2025 that ended mandatory private-business acceptance and required taxes in U.S. dollars are background to the program, not new Oct. 1 actions.

Coverage of corporate Bitcoin treasuries and ETF flows on Called It—such as bitcoin ETF outflows and Citi’s bitcoin price target—is adjacent market color, not part of the IMF board decision.

Nothing here is investment advice about Bitcoin or about El Salvador’s debt.

What's next

Further program reviews will test the no-further-accumulation commitment and the unwind of residual Chivo exposure. Crypto.news says the Fund also wants stronger disclosure of state crypto assets and amendments to El Salvador’s Digital Asset Issuance Law; those are stated program asks, not completed reforms. The disbursement figure to hold is the range both outlets support: about $138–139 million (SDR 101.96 million), after the Oct. 1 completion of the second and third reviews.

The crypto.news account is here.