Bitcoin

Only hours after El Salvador publicly announced its move to store a “big chunk” of its Bitcoin <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price">(BTC)</a> in a physically secured cold wallet, Bitcoiners have already lined the wallet with their favorite “rare sats” and Ordinals.
On March 14, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1768425845163503738" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">announced</a> his country’s new “Bitcoin piggy bank” — storing a portion of the country’s Bitcoin holdings in a cold wallet stored in a physical vault.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 “We’ve decided to transfer a big chunk of our #Bitcoin to a cold wallet and store that cold wallet in a physical vault within our national territory.” 
</blockquote>
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/fe8948df-8967-413b-a47f-788ffeac0c51.jpg">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 X post from El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele. Source: @nayibbukele on <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1768425845163503738" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">X</a>
 </figcaption>
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The wallet currently shows a balance of $388 million in Bitcoin, <a href="https://mempool.space/address/32ixEdVJWo3kmvJGMTZq5jAQVZZeuwnqzo" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">according</a> to Bitcoin explorer Mempool.
However, Ordiscan <a href="https://ordiscan.com/address/32ixEdVJWo3kmvJGMTZq5jAQVZZeuwnqzo" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">shows</a> the wallet also contains at least 67 Ordinals donations, including BRC-20 tokens, text inscriptions, images, a 3D “runestone” and even a copy of the “Cypherpunk Manifesto" — a <a href="https://cdn.nakamotoinstitute.org/docs/cypherpunk-manifesto.txt" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">document</a> authored by Eric Hughes in March 1993 proposed to uphold privacy via encryption in the electronic age.
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/556bc12f-2351-423d-abd7-0f3d593bf348.png">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Ordinals donations sent to El Salvador's new Bitcoin wallet address. Source: Ordiscan
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The wallet also contains approximately $700 in satoshi donations, with a number of these being “pizza” and “vintage” labeled sats — pizza sats, for example, come from the 10,000 BTC famously used by early Bitcoin contributor Laszlo Hanyecz to pay for<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-pizza-day"> two Papa John’s pepperoni pizzas</a> on May 22, 2010. Vintage sats on the other hand refer to sats that were mined within the first 1000 Bitcoin blocks.
A total of 56 transactions have been sent to El Salvador’s new wallet address — with the vast majority of them representing small value transfers.
“Gotta love bitcoiners. Donations rolling in to El Salvador's cold wallet, <a href="https://x.com/gersonmartinez/status/1768436409868701790" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">said</a> Gerson Martínez, a strategist at El Salvadoran Bitcoin mining project Volcano Energy in a March 15 X post.
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/3e4dec90-8737-4253-9012-6af36738c37b.jpg">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 X post from Gerson Martínez Source: @gersonmartinez on <a href="https://x.com/gersonmartinez/status/1768436409868701790" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">X</a>
 </figcaption>
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The X account of HODL15Capital also <a href="https://x.com/HODL15Capital/status/1768436529376927919" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">applauded</a> Bukele and El Salvador for its transparent approach.
The 5,689 Bitcoin is considerably larger than the 2,864 BTC, worth $195 million, that was understood to be held in the government’s treasury, <a href="https://nayibtracker.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">according</a> to figures from Nayib Bukele Portfolio Tracker.
However, Bukele recently <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1767323587071947195" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">said</a> that figure doesn’t include Bitcoin that the government has earned from its passport program, mining projects and converting BTC to United States dollars for local businesses, to name a few.
<figure>
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/65304b4e-5e9b-4438-b6db-3c532551302f.png">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 X post from El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele. Source: @nayibbukele on <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1767323587071947195" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">X</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="el-salvador-relied-on-multisig-to-get-the-funds-across">El Salvador relied on multisig to get the funds across</h3>
The 5,689 BTC balance came from several transactions. The first transfer of 1,120 BTC, worth $76.5 million, was made on March 13 via a 3/5 multisignature authorization, which four signatories approved, according to Mempool. 
<figure>
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/7d7e4dae-e675-4ac0-82d4-cd6b259b694d.png">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Bitcoin transfer into El Salvador’s new Bitcoin cold wallet address. Source: <a href="https://mempool.space/address/32ixEdVJWo3kmvJGMTZq5jAQVZZeuwnqzo" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Mempool</a>
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The largest transfer of 4,000 BTC, worth $273 million, occurred at 9:38 pm UTC on March 14 — about two hours after Bukele shared the news.
Bukele was <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/el-salvador-exit-polls-show-nayib-bukele-to-win-election">reelected as president</a> on Feb. 4, taking home over 80% of the votes. 
He spearheaded the country’s Bitcoin revolution in September 2021, helping El Salvador become the first country to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/september-7-is-bitcoin-day-in-el-salvador-as-btc-becomes-legal-tender">make Bitcoin legal tender.</a>
Big Questions: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/big-questions-can-bitcoin-payments-make-a-comeback/">How can Bitcoin payments stage a comeback?</a>

El Salvador’s Bitcoin wallet gets sats, cats and a cypherpunk manifesto

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