The First 400
El Salvador acquired its first 400 Bitcoins on Monday and expects to buy a lot more before the Tuesday deadline to declare Bitcoin the country’s official currency.
On Monday, President Nayib Bukele tweeted, “El Salvador has just bought its first 200 coins.” He later said that the nation had purchased a further 200 Bitcoins, bringing its total to 400. The bitcoin purchases, which come just a day before El Salvador’s bitcoin law takes effect, total almost $20 million at Monday’s pricing.
It’s the first step in El Salvador’s ambitious quest to make bitcoin legal money, which is expected to attract a lot of interest from cryptocurrency aficionados to monetary policy specialists all around the world.
El Salvador enacted legislation in June that makes it the first country to recognize Bitcoin as legal cash alongside the US dollar, the country’s existing currency. As a result, all businesses in the nation must now accept bitcoin as a form of payment for products and services, and Salvadorans will be able to pay their taxes using the cryptocurrency. The bitcoin law is meant to better the lives of Salvadorans, but how do they feel about the law?
Salvadorans worry that the government has provided little information, putting people in the dark about what the transition would entail for them.
Protests erupted in the capital city of San Salvador last month, with residents worried that their pension benefits would be wiped away and that money laundering activities would increase in a country where corruption is rampant. According to a July study, 75% of Salvadorans had misgivings about the bill.
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.
