El Salvador’s President Nayib Bucke made headlines when he revealed the existence of a piggy bank secret chamber storing more than 5,689 Bitcoin. Bukele reported that 4,560 of the bitcoins came from the cryptocurrencycurrency exchange Bitfinex, raising concerns given El Salvador’s suspected affiliation with Bitso as a bitcoin custodian.
Mario Gomez, a vocal critic of Bukele’s Bitcoin ambitions, stated that the president’s Bitcoin purchase announcements did not correlate to transfers to the country’s cryptocurrencycurrency wallet. He observed parallels with Tether’s suspected use of borrowed monies to demonstrate holdings.
Gomez previously linked a Chivo wallet to a Twitter breach involving a Bitcoin giveaway scheme, leading to his controversial arrest by Bukele in 2021. While Bukele insists that the vault represents an honest effort, the disclosure has raised debate over the transparency of El Salvador’s bitcoin acquisitions and the country’s overall cryptocurrencycurrency strategy.
