El Salvador's response was to buy the dip — adding another 150 BTC to its reserves.
Bitcoin tumbled below $45,000 on Monday — evaporating a bout of bullish momentum over the weekend that saw prices hit $48,791.78.
The cryptocurrency’s seven-day chart looks like a game of snakes and ladders: An inviting move up followed by a nasty slide down.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele took the opportunity to declare that his country had bought another 150 BTC, taking the total it holds in reserve to 700 BTC.
Bukele then went on to offer “presidential advice,” tweeting:
“They can never beat you if you buy the dips.”
In a tongue-in-cheek swipe at his critics — some of whom have been protesting against the Bitcoin Law and changes that are being made to the country’s constitution — Bukele also changed his Twitter bio to “Dictator of El Salvador.”
Last Thursday, it was announced that the country’s Court of Accounts is going to investigate complaints about the government’s crypto purchases — as well as its investment in a network of Bitcoin ATMs.
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A Bearish Start to the Week
The question now is whether Bitcoin’s plunge will continue, or whether this is another bump in the road to further highs.
When asked last week whether recent market jitters affected his belief that Bitcoin is heading to $100,000, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone told the CoinMarketRecap podcast:
“One thing I’ve learned as an ex-pit trader is to avoid the nuances of the little fluctuations as much as possible and focus on the big picture, and the big picture is quite bullish for Bitcoin and Ethereum.”
In other developments, a crypto wallet that has been left untouched for almost nine years was reactivated over the weekend — with 616 BTC moved to a new address.
Each Bitcoin in the wallet was worth just $13.30 back in 2012 — but by the time Sunday’s transaction was made, a single coin was valued at about $47,800.
Meanwhile, the digital banking brand Revolut has announced that it is paying for a brand-new office in the U.S. using Bitcoin.
An announcement said that the company is the first WeWork enterprise member to use crypto as a payment method, and its new space in Dallas will be enough to accommodate 300 employees.
