The bold step taken in Christmas 2024 in El Salvador to confirm its intent for Bitcoin was more of the same. A month later, the country spent another $1 million in Bitcoin capital, bringing its total to 5,997 and moving the country up past a $1.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), purchased just a day after.
https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1871032479596810282
One of the Bitcoin-themed Christmas trees around the nation also stands in El Salvador, a reminder of how the little nation is all in on cryptocurrency with the East Coast pressuring outside. In 2021, El Salvador made Bitcoin the first country to elect the new fiat currency and integrated cryptocurrency into its economy. The nation’s financial system now includes Bitcoin ATMs, government-backed wallets and transactions.
El Salvador’s cryptocurrency policies are dangerously thin ice as is, and the $1.4 billion IMF loan was specifically intended to impact El Salvador’s cryptocurrency policies directly. These include:
Criminalizing the cryptocurrency transaction.
- There is no legal obligation on businesses to accept Bitcoin.
- You only pay U.S. taxes in U.S. dollars.
- It has also discontinued the government’s Chivo wallet, which was launched last year as part of a broader strategy of accepting Bitcoin.
These terms point to the IMF’s predilection for so-called traditional monetary practices, which often entail countries being constrained in their discretion to fashion their own measures in support of their own independent financial policy, such as the centralization of digital currencies.
El Salvador Maintains Bitcoin Reserves Despite IMF Restrictions
Despite restricting countries from Bitcoin, the IMF has refused to allow El Salvador to shirk it. The National Bitcoin Office confirms that the government reaffirms its pledge to maintain its Bitcoin reserves and not sell any, however. At about $97,000 per BTC on average, the country has already bought 5,995 BTC, worth around $569.5 million.
El Salvador’s portfolio wasn’t knocked off its feet because of market volatility. Although the amount recently dipped, the trend upward has been the rule. And there’s a new IMF agreement that exactly matches up to a ramp in Bitcoin purchases and the 2024 upward trajectory.
https://twitter.com/bitcoinofficesv/status/1869899405391999015?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It’s serious about financial dignity, El Salvador shows, and away from global financial institutions. Americans are a lot Zenner about cryptocurrency than you might think gambling Bitcoin as an asset that will improve the economy in the long run.
IMF restrictions did not stop El Salvador’s vision. But as a reminder that the nation values cryptocurrency as part of its financial future, the Bitcoin-themed Christmas tree is an appropriately festive message.
El Salvador’s audacious gambit by ignoring global howls of hatred and going ahead and celebrating Christmas by buying yet another Bitcoin. But, as challenges remain, the nation’s strategy could set the country on a path to financial innovation and sovereignty based, at least in part, on Bitcoin as the coin of its economy.
Who manage the bitcoin? El cipote does.
Give the profit to poor people. No for you!