Bitcoin&'s recent rally prompted El Salvador&'s president Nayib Bukele to challenge naysayers on Twitter. "With the current Bitcoin market price, if we were to sell our Bitcoin, we would not only recover 100% of our investment but also make a profit of $3 620 277.13 USD (as of this moment)," Bukele wrote. Before making his point, he mentioned having to deal with thousands of "articles and hit pieces" ridiculing El Salvador&'s hypothetical losses based on current Bitcoin valuation.

On Monday, Bitcoin soared past $40,000 for the first time since May last year. The spike was most likely driven by optimism regarding the expected decision from US regulators to allow Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). They would track the price of the cryptocurrency, allowing the public to invest in it without actually buying the "real" BTC.

With ETFs, the institutional money would gain a legitimate, fully compliant way to invest in Bitcoin and offer it to retail investors. Overall, BTC ETFs would increase Bitcoin&'s accessibility and liquidity, which would obviously contribute to boosting its price. For HODLers, it&'s a good moment to pop yet another champagne, but it&'s still not the perfect time for selling.

Bukele declares the intention to hold on to Bitcoin as part of El Salvador&'s long-term strategy. At the same time, he urges skeptics and "authors of those hit pieces" to revoke their statements and offer apologies. If that&'s too much, they should at least "acknowledge that El Salvador is now yielding a profit," the president suggests.

Bitcoin&'s take-off instilled a lot of enthusiasm across the industry. Bloomberg Intelligence commodity strategist Mike McGlone observed that the number-one the cryptocurrency is showing "more strength" than gold, even though the price of the latter has recently bolted to an-all time high. On Monday, the precious metal traded above $2,100 per ounce due to expected interest rate cuts.