El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, said on Twitter that the nation had purchased 410 bitcoin for $15 million.
El Salvador became the first country in the world to recognise bitcoin as legal cash tender in September, installing bitcoin ATMs and mandating companies to accept it. Later, Bukele promised to develop a tax-free Bitcoin City on the Salvadoran coast, expedite citizenship for specific blockchain investors, and went even as far as to say set up geothermal bitcoin mining facilities, which may turn the Central American country into a worldwide crypto mining hotspot. “It’s game over for FIAT,” Bukele, who styles himself as “CEO of El Salvador” in his Twitter account bio, stated that adopting bitcoin as legal currency would improve El Salvador’s economy.
Bitcoin as legal currency in El Salvador
Such statements are impossible to verify on the public blockchainsince a buyer of a BTC block of such size would almost probably have to buy it in smaller bits to prevent slippage.Late Friday, Bitcoin was down roughly 12% to $36,500, with wider crypto values also down.The country already has more than 1,500 bitcoins and aims to issue a $1 billion 10-year bitcoin bond this year.Over the last several months, Bukele has been a persistent dip buyer, indicating that he believes in the cryptocurrency’s long-term potential.Last September, three months after the country’s legislature enacted the Bitcoin Law, Bitcoin became legal tender in the country .
El Salvador’s acceptance of bitcoin
Despite the fact that it made Bukele a crypto hero, El Salvador’s acceptance of bitcoin as legal cash sparked huge protests from Salvadorans who claimed that the decision hurt ordinary people while benefiting wealthy investors. Anti-bitcoin protestors in San Salvador held placards and torched tyres in front of the Supreme Court building until they were removed by heavily armed police, as reported by Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, El Salvador’s national debt has risen to more than 50% of its GDP. Moody’s lowered the country’s credit rating to Caa1 in July, indicating a very high credit risk. On top of that,El Salvador’s bitcoin trades increase the country’s credit risk. .
