The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has again called on El Salvador to keep its Bitcoin holdings unchanged.

In a statement released on May 27, the IMF said government-owned wallets must not increase their BTC reserves and also urged the country to fully exit its role in the Chivo wallet by the end of July.

According to the global financial body:

“Efforts will continue to ensure that the total amount of Bitcoin held across all government-owned wallets remains unchanged, consistent with program commitments, while also securing the unwinding of the public sector’s participation in the Chivo wallet by end-July.”

This directive follows a staff-level agreement that would unlock $120 million for El Salvador as part of a $1.4 billion loan deal.

However, the final approval still depends on the IMF executive board and whether the country meets its policy commitments.

El Salvador first signed the financing arrangement in December 2024, and one key condition was to reduce direct state involvement in Bitcoin-related activities.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin embrace

Despite this, the Central American country has aggressively acquired more Bitcoin over the past few months.

For context, the government added at least eight more BTC to its coffers in the past week alone and has shown no sign of slowing down.

El Salvador’s national Bitcoin office confirmed the country now holds nearly 6,190 BTC. At current prices, this stash is worth over $674 million and has generated unrealized profits of more than $200 million.

President Nayib Bukele, the principal architect of El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin, has remained firm on the policy.

He has dismissed external pressure and consistently emphasized the economic gains achieved under his administration’s BTC-first approach.

Stacy Herbert, who leads the Bitcoin office, reinforced this stance. She said the government is actively shaping the legal and financial infrastructure needed to attract capital by adopting the top crypto.

She stated:

“We are working to build the robust capital markets needed for an economic miracle to happen: with both our proposed legislation to attract international capital as well as our work establishing the world’s first Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and encouraging a government policy of aggressive bitcoin accumulation.”

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Coinbase revealed that it suffered a data breach that affected less than 1% of its active monthly users, according to the May 15 statement.

Following the hack, the exchange CEO Brian Armstrong said the perpetrators tried to extort it of $20 million in Bitcoin.

How Coinbase was breached

According to the exchange, the threat actors recruited and bribed a group of overseas support agents with access to its internal systems.

These insiders leaked sensitive data, which allowed the threat actors to impersonate Coinbase staff and carry out social engineering scams.

According to the firm, the compromised data included names, contact details, identity documents, and masked bank and social security information.

However, Coinbase stressed that its users’ login credentials, private keys, and core infrastructure, including Prime wallets, remained secure.

Meanwhile, the company has terminated the compromised insiders and vowed to pursue legal action against them. It is also working with law enforcement agencies to investigate the breach.

Coinbase further announced that it will compensate affected users.

The attackers attempted to extort $20 million from the firm following the breach. However, Coinbase rejected the demand, stating:

“We will not pay the $20 million ransom demand we received. Instead we are establishing a $20 million reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the criminals responsible for this attack.”

ZachXBT’s connection

While Coinbase has not confirmed any direct links, blockchain investigator ZachXBT noted that the breach aligns with previous social engineering attacks he has reported.

In a response to the Coinbase announcement, ZachXBT said:

“Indeed there’s a lot of Coinbase user thefts I posted tied to the group.”

Over recent months, ZachXBT has detailed how Coinbase users have collectively lost hundreds of millions of dollars to elaborate phishing and impersonation tactics. He estimated that such scams cost the exchange users more than $300 million yearly.

However, Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy believed the current rigid regulatory frameworks allowed these attacks to flourish.

According to him:

“This is the dark side of the idiotic and nonsensical kyc/aml regime we live in. Making life marginally convenient for law enforcement and geopolitical games, while sacrificing our privacy, imposing a massive tax on pretty much all businesses, and making it easier for criminals to rob, kidnap and do crime.”

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