The decision was announced by the country’s President, Nayib Bukele, while speaking during a video broadcast at the Bitcoin 2021 conference held in Miami.
“Next week, I will send to Congress a bill that will make Bitcoin a legal tender,” he was quoted saying.
The President also revealed that the country had entered a partnership with famous digital wallet company, Strike, to build the country a modern financial infrastructure using Bitcoin technology.
President Bukele buttressed the reason for his decision in a series of tweets on Twitter where he had changed his profile picture to the laser eye.
Per his tweet:
“#Bitcoin has a market cap of $680 billion. If 1% of it is invested in El Salvador, that will increase our GDP by 25%. On the other side, #Bitcoin will have 10 million potential new users and the fastest growing way to transfer 6 billion dollars a year in remittances.”
Jack Mallers, the founder of Strike, opined that “holding Bitcoin provides a way to protect developing economies from potential shocks of fiat currency inflation.”
Mallers also added that the move would help unleash the power and potential of bitcoin for everyday use cases on an open network that benefits individuals, businesses, and public sector services.
El Salvador, being a major cash-dependent economy, adoption of Bitcoin would lead to more financial inclusion for the state’s citizens. “Financial inclusion is not only a moral imperative but also a way to grow the country’s economy, providing access to credit, savings, investment, and secure transactions,” the President stated.
Crypto Community Erupts With Joy
Crypto enthusiasts have taken the news of this development with joy, as many of them posit that this is an indication that the leading crypto asset is gaining ground globally.
According to Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, the move by the American country will lead to more crypto investors and entrepreneurs moving there.
Crypto investors and entrepreneur will start to move to El Salvador! #Bitcoin
— Justin Sun ?? (@justinsuntron) June 6, 2021
MicroStrategy’s chief executive and a leading voice for Bitcoin, Michael Saylor, also tweeted, “Welcome to Bitcoin.” At the same time, Caitlin Long, the CEO of Avanti Bank, hailed the announcement as a historic day in the history of Bitcoin.
1/ THREAD ABOUT A HISTORIC DAY in #bitcoin: #ElSalvador president publicly announced support for legislation to make #BTC legal tender. *IF* it does become law, it wld have many secondary effects. Steel yourselves bc a big fight on this probably coming thohttps://t.co/BrrNxaLzpZ
— Caitlin Long ? (@CaitlinLong_) June 6, 2021
CZ, the top executive of leading crypto exchange Binance, asked his followers to predict the next country that would be adopting BTC before adding, “El Salvador is beautiful.”
