Nayib Bukele announced that El Salvador bought its first 200 bitcoins

Nayib Bukele announced on Twitter on Monday the purchase of “200 bitcoins”, the first carried out by the government of El Salvador and which would amount to more than 10 million dollars.

“El Salvador has just bought its first 200 pieces. Our brokers will buy a lot more as the deadline approaches ”Said the Salvadoran president in a message posted on his Twitter account, written in English and in which he added the tag “#BitcoinDay”.

The agency EFE and other international media consulted with a liaison with the presidential communications secretariat about the details of the operation, but no information was provided.

According to various cryptocurrency exchange platforms, the price of bitcoin topped $ 52,000 on Monday and remains above $ 51,000.

In other words, the government of El Salvador has reportedly invested more than $ 10 million.

The cryptocurrency surpassed $ 50,000 on Thursday and, according to experts consulted by EFE, the rise is due to the increased adoption of this cryptocurrency by investors.

Agree with Bloomberg, Twitter and Reddit users are discussing massive $ 30 bitcoin purchase plans “to mark the entry into force of Salvadoran Bitcoin law.”

“The potential for coordinated price pumping echoes previous online campaigns targeting stocks even like GameStop Corp,” he added.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin law goes into effect tomorrow amid strong public disapproval, who is suspicious of this digital asset, is against the use of state resources for its use and asks for more information.

There is over $ 200 million that the Legislature gave to Bukele’s government for the implementation of the project.

Despite popular skepticism, Bukele claims that legalizing bitcoin will save Salvadorans living abroad millions of dollars in commissions on the money they send home.

The law that allows the circulation of bitcoin as a currency in El Salvador with the US dollar comes into force on Tuesday, making this country the first in the world to take this step between the rejection of the population.

The Bitcoin Law, approved in June by the ruling majority in the Legislative Assembly and its allies, states that “any economic agent must accept bitcoin as a means of payment when offered to him by anyone who acquires a good or service” .

That is to say Its use is mandatory, although President Nayib Bukele has indicated that it will be left to the discretion of Salvadorans.

In addition, the regulations specify that “the exchange rate between bitcoin and the United States dollar, now the dollar, will be freely established by the market”.

From Tuesday, Salvadorans will be able to use the ATMs, in which people who own bitcoins will be able to withdraw dollars in cash. Likewise, they will be able to download the electronic wallet promoted by the government and called “Chivo Wallet”.

People who decide to install the application on their mobile phones will receive a bonus in bitcoin equivalent to $ 30, without this being able to be converted into dollars.

The key between accepting and receiving bitcoin, according to an explanation given by Bukele, lies in the “automatic and instantaneous convertibility” of the crypto asset into dollars.

Salvadoran president encouraged the use of bitcoin as a measure to eliminate the payment of commissions for sending remittances from the United States, which supports the Salvadoran economy and benefits 1.63 million Salvadorans.

In total, 471,633 households receive these currencies, of which 13,530 are in extreme poverty and 68,874 in relative poverty, according to official sources.

According to the president, Salvadorians pay 400 million abroad each year to send funds, which in 2020 amounted to more than 5,900 million.

Hundreds of Salvadorans, mostly young people, have demonstrated in recent days against the establishment of bitcoin as a bargaining chip and called for the repeal of the law that will allow its use.

According to a survey by the University Institute of Public Opinion of the University of Central America (Iudop), 66.7% of the population believes that the Bitcoin law should be repealed, 78.3% of citizens have little or no interested in downloading to their phones use the electronic wallet and 71.2% prefer to use the dollar.

Two other surveys show similar results: the official currencies in El Salvador, according to the law on monetary integration, are two in number: the US dollar and the colon, although the latter is no longer circulating.

With information from EFE

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