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Many donations amounting to approximately $700 in Satoshis have been sent to the new “Bitcoin piggy bank” in El Salvador.
Shortly after El Salvador announced its intention to store a significant portion of its Bitcoin holdings in a cold wallet stored in a physical vault, Bitcoin enthusiasts contributed by sending their favorite “rare sats” and Ordinals to the wallet.
The Introduction of the New Bitcoin Piggy Bank
On March 14, President Nayib Bukele introduced the country’s new Bitcoin piggy bank. The cold wallet, which contains a balance of $388 million in Bitcoin, according to Mempool, is stored within a physical vault on national territory.
Ordiscan shows that the wallet has received at least 67 Ordinals donations, including BRC-20 tokens, text inscriptions, images, a 3D “runestone,” and even a copy of the “Cypherpunk Manifesto” written by Eric Hughes in March 1993, which proposed to uphold privacy via encryption in the electronic age.
The $700 Worth of Satoshi
The wallet contains approximately $700 in satoshi donations, including “pizza” and “vintage” labeled sats. Pizza sats refer to the 10,000 BTC famously used by early Bitcoin contributor Laszlo Hanyecz to pay for two Papa John’s pepperoni pizzas on May 22, 2010, while vintage sats refer to sats that were mined within the first 1000 Bitcoin blocks.
Gerson Martínez, a strategist at El Salvadoran Bitcoin mining project, Volcano Energy, expressed his appreciation for the donations in a March 15 X post, saying “Gotta love bitcoiners.”
Gotta love bitcoiners. Donations rolling in to El Salvador's cold wallet 🔥🔥🔥. https://t.co/kniA1T6TGH pic.twitter.com/mpQxtOGpHU
— Gerson Martínez 🟧 ⛏️ (@gersonmartinez) March 15, 2024
According to Nayib Bukele Portfolio Tracker, the 5,689 Bitcoin held by El Salvador is considerably larger than the 2,864 BTC worth $195 million believed to be in the government’s treasury.
El Salvador has transferred a large chunk of its Bitcoin holdings to a cold wallet kept in a physical vault. The wallet currently holds a balance of $388 million in Bitcoin.
However, Bukele clarified that this figure does not include Bitcoin earned by the government from its passport program, mining projects, and converting BTC to United States dollars for local businesses.
Did Crypto Market Fall Due to That Tweet?
Many people are confused that this news has caused bitcoin to fall more than $6k in a single day. However, this is likely not the reason for the fall. Global markets around the world have registered a downtrend; whether Japan’s Nikkei or India’s Nifty, all the equity markets are down. It has resulted in people pulling out money from riskier investments like cryptos.
Summary
El Salvador has received around $700 in satoshi donations, with the majority being small value transfers. The country holds 5,689 Bitcoins, significantly larger than the amount believed to be in the government’s treasury.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions stated by the author or any people named in this article are for informational purposes only. They do not establish financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading in stocks, cryptos, or other related indexes comes with a risk of financial loss.
Adarsh Singh is a true connoisseur of Defi and Blockchain technologies, who left his job at a “Big 4” multinational finance firm to pursue crypto and NFT trading full-time. He has a strong background in finance, with MBA from a prestigious B-school. He delves deep into these innovative fields, unraveling their intricacies. Uncovering hidden gems, be it coins, tokens or NFTs, is his expertise. NFTs drive deep interest for him, and his creative analysis of NFTs opens up engaging narratives. He strives to bring decentralized digital assets accessible to the masses.
