By Zack Abrams

Crypto Ecosystems • August 30, 2025

Quick Take

• El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office split its BTC holdings between 14 addresses as an added safeguard against quantum threats.
• Analysts have said the quantum computing threat to bitcoin remains years away.
• The office claims to buy one BTC each day, though the country’s top finance ministers told the IMF in July that the government has not bought bitcoin since February of this year.

Under the direction of pro-bitcoin President Nayib Bukele, the office claims to purchase one BTC every day and add it to the country's strategic bitcoin reserve. The reserve currently holds 6,284 BTC, worth more than $682 million at current prices, according to the office's website. Until Friday, the reserve was held in a single address. Following the announcement, the office's holdings were split between 14 new addresses, none containing more than 500 BTC, onchain data show.

The move "aligns with best practices in Bitcoin management and prepares for potential developments in quantum computing," the office's announcement states. "Limiting funds in each address reduces exposure to quantum threats because an unused Bitcoin address with hashed public keys remains protected."

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Quantum computing poses a potential threat to Bitcoin’s ECDSA signatures, and thus the network's security, though Bernstein analysts said last year that any practical threat to the world's most valuable cryptocurrency remains "decades away," The Block previously reported.

The office's claims of Bitcoin purchases run counter to a signed statement from the country's central bank president and minister of finance, telling the IMF that El Salvador's public sector hasn't bought BTC since February of this year, under the terms of a loan agreement with the IMF. Neither Bukele nor his office has addressed the July IMF report directly, though the office continues to announce daily purchases on X.

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© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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AUTHOR

Zack Abrams

Zack Abrams is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. Before coming to The Block, he was the Head Writer at Coinage, a Web3 media outlet covering the biggest stories in Web3.