On September 7, 2021, El Salvador formally recognised bitcoin as a legal tender after President Nayib Bukulele’s declaration in June 2021. Just before the “Bitcoin Law” took effect, the president announced that the country had bought its first 200 bitcoins and intended to buy “a lot more.” Estimates show that El Salvador has acquired a total of 2,381 bitcoins.
El Salvador made the last bitcoin transaction on June 30, 2022, paying an average of $19,000 for 80 coins. And today, the President tweeted that El Salvador will buy one Bitcoin every day from tomorrow.
He has often defended the status of Bitcoin as legal tender, either by repurchasing bonds to show that the country’s finances are stable or by merely buying more Bitcoin to convince sceptics that they still stand by their decision to do so.
President Bukele released an opinion piece in the Bitcoin Magazine in which he attacked those who had criticised El Salvador’s decision to adopt Bitcoin. He asserted that “if El Salvador succeeds, many countries will follow” and that El Salvador is doing fairly well despite all of their pessimistic predictions, and that
At the time of publishing, Bitcoin was trading at $16,573.80,down 0.43% since yesterday and 15% in a month.
The loud critics of El Salvador are nothing but “elites of the world,” who appeared to be “afraid,” and who just looked out for themselves. He referenced a series of articles written by his critics who argued that El Salvador’s “bitcoin gamble” would have destroyed the nation’s economy, that they were unavoidably on the verge of default, that their economy would collapse, and that the government is bankrupt.
In 2021, the GDP of the nation increased by 10.3%, exports rose by 17%, employment increased by 7%, tourism income rose by 52%, new businesses grew by 12%, energy generation increased by 19%, energy exports rose by 3.291%, and domestic revenue rose by 37%.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has repeatedly warned the nation that if the decision to accept Bitcoin as legal cash is not reversed, it will result in a financial catastrophe.