APHOTOGRAFIA
- "It was a long wait, but worth it. We just bought the dip!" Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador said on Wednesday.
- El Salvador bought 420 bitcoin worth $25 million, bringing total holdings to 1120 coins.
- Bitcoin fell below $59,000 at one point on Wednesday – a two-week low – as investors cashed in.
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El Salvador has added another 420 bitcoins to its official holdings, according to a tweet by President Nayib Bukele on Wednesday.
Bukele said this latest purchase brought total holdings to 1,120 coins. "It was a long wait, but worth it. We just bought the dip!" Bukele said.
Bitcoin tumbled below $59,000 on Wednesday, its lowest in two weeks, after investors cashed in on the previous week's rally to a record of almost $69,000, following the successful launch of the ProShares' bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund.
El Salvador is making a profit out of bitcoin, because it has a trust that holds both the cryptocurrency and US dollars, Bukele explained in a Twitter thread. When bitcoin gains in value, the government withdraws that profit in US dollars from the trust.
The last time El Salvador purchased bitcoin outright was in September, when it bought 150 coins. "They can never beat you if you buy the dips," Bukele said in a tweet at the time.
El Salvador became the first country in the world to make bitcoin legal tender in September.
The government even set up a bitcoin mining operation that uses renewable energy from volcanoes to power the scores of computer equipment needed to solve the complex algorithms that allow operators to "mine" the coin. It announced earlier this month the first bitcoin had been mined using this source of energy.