El Salvador authorities have mined 473,5 BTC in geothermal energy since 2021

In total, the government’s accounts hold coins worth $360 million at the current exchange rate

15.05.2024 - 10:45

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3 min

What’s new? Over the past three years, the government of El Salvador has mined 473,5 BTC using a geothermal power plant powered by lava flows from the Tecapa volcano. The administration of President and bitcoin enthusiast Nayib Bukele, who was re-elected for a second term earlier this year, has installed 300 mining devices. Of the state power plant’s total capacity of 102MW, 1,5MW of the asset’s mining capacity is accounted for.

Material by Reuters

What else is known? The authorities began mining bitcoin in September 2021, just after the asset received official tender status. El Salvador became the first country to legalize bitcoin.

According to the National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC), established at the end of 2022 to manage government crypto projects, the treasury holds a total of 5750 BTC, worth more than $360 million at the current exchange rate.

After the legalization of BTC, the authorities began investingin the asset regularly, which drew criticism from both citizens and IMF experts.

In February this year, Bukele noted that the government’s investment in the first cryptocurrency had grown by 40%. He also drew attention to the fact that critics of this investment strategy ignored this fact, although earlier they actively counted the unrealized losses of the authorities as a result of the fall of the BTC exchange rate.

In May, ONBTC launched a mempool to track government BTC assets.

In addition to mining and investments, the government has another source of BTC: a $1 million citizenship program for crypto investments, launched in conjunction with USDT Tether, the issuer of the USDT Tether stablecoin, late last year. The program will allocate 1000 visas each year, and if all slots are filled, authorities will be able to receive $1 billion in cryptocurrency each year.

Tether and Bitfinex’s parent company will participate in the creation of crypto regulation in El Salvador

The parties have been actively collaborating on other areas since 2021

El Salvador’s Vice President Felix Ulloa back in October last year cited the legalization of BTC as the main reason for the country’s economic growth.

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