El Salvador Buys The Dip With $101M Bitcoin Purchase, Its Biggest Single-Day Bet As BTC Slips Below $90K

El Salvador is buying the dip, making its largest single-day Bitcoin purchase of about $101 million as BTC falls below $90K.

According to El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office, the country acquired 1,090 BTC yesterday evening, pushing its total holdings to 7,474 BTC valued at about $676 million.

Pro-Bitcoin President Nayib Bukele also flagged the purchase via a post on X that included a screenshot that showed the acquisition. 

Bitcoin Drops Below $90K

The buy was executed as the largest crypto by market cap slid below the $90K support level, the lowest since April. Bitcoin dropped more than 5% in the past 24 hours to trade at $89,703.33 as of 1:03 a.m. EST, extending its loss for the past week to more than 15%, according to CoinMarketCap. 

BTC price (Source: CoinMarketCap)

Questions Remain Around El Salvador’s Bitcoin Buys

While Bukele and El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office show that a Bitcoin purchase was recently executed, there remain questions over its actions.

That’s because a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the IMF explicitly requires El Salvador’s public sector not to buy Bitcoin.

An IMF report said that increases in the country’s BTC holdings in the reserve fund reflect the consolidation of Bitcoin across several government-owned wallets rather than new purchases.

Still, the head of the Bitcoin Office, Starcy Herbert, said in March that El Salvador continues to buy Bitcoin in defiance of the IMF deal. 

“Some ‘bitcoiners’ trust the words of the IMF over the stacking actions of El Salvador recorded for eternity onto the Bitcoin blockchain,” Herbert wrote. 

Strategy Adds To Its Massive Bitcoin Reserves With Largest Buy Since July

Strategy’s Michael Saylor also announced that his firm took the opportunity to buy the dip. In an 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the firm disclosed that it executed its biggest Bitcoin purchase since July. 

In its latest buy, Strategy acquired 8,178 BTC for approximately $835.6 million at an average price of $102,171 per Bitcoin between Nov. 10 and Nov. 16. 

After the purchase, Strategy’s share price closed yesterday’s trading session more than 2% down, according to Google Finance. 

Strategy is already the largest Bitcoin treasury firm globally, with more than 10X coins on its balance sheet than the next-biggest firm, according to data from Bitcoin Treasuries. 

Top 10 largest corporate BTC holders (Source: Bitcoin Treasuries) 

Strategy’s most recent purchases were made using proceeds from at-the-market sales of its perpetual Strike preferred stock (STRK), perpetual Strife preferred stock (STRF), and perpetual Stretch preferred stock (STRC). The company also used proceeds from its recently-unveiled, euro-denominated preferred stock (STRE). 

Strategy’s purchase followed rumors that the company had sold some of its Bitcoin holdings last week, triggering a wave of panic selling in the retail market. Saylor quickly denied there had been any sales.