President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador announced that he has transferred a significant portion of the country’s bitcoin assets to an offline storage device, a cold wallet, which will be kept in a secure physical vault within the nation’s borders. This decision comes amid uncertainty regarding the true size of the holdings, but recent surges in bitcoin value have increased attention on the cryptocurrency. El Salvador’s bitcoin portfolio is reported to be around $407 million, although exact figures are unclear. The country’s move to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021 was met with criticism, notably from the International Monetary Fund, which is in talks for a loan with El Salvador. Despite these challenges, Bukele has proposed ambitious plans for a tax-free crypto haven known as Bitcoin City, although construction has yet to commence as he prepares for his second term as president.