Bitcoin: El Salvador becomes first country to make cryptocurrency a legal tender
Bitcoin is to become legal tender in El Salvador, the country’s president said, making it the first nation to adopt a cryptocurrency for everyday use.
Bitcoin is to become legal tender in El Salvador, the country’s president said, making it the first nation to adopt a cryptocurrency for everyday use.
The country’s Congress approved President Nayib Bukele’s proposal to embrace the cryptocurrency, with 62 out of 84 possible votes on Tuesday night.
Lawmakers in the Central American nation’s Congress passed a bill late Tuesday that will eventually allow the famously volatile digital currency to be used for many aspects of daily life, from property purchases to tax contributions.
Recall that we reported that President Nayib Bukele made the announcement on Saturday that he will introduce a bill to Congress this week for the country to formally adopt the bitcoin as a legal tender:
This, however, is in hopes that being the first country to officially use the cryptocurrency will attract investment and allow more residents to take part in the formal economy.
The #BitcoinLaw has been approved by a supermajority in the Salvadoran Congress.
62 out of 84 votes!
History! #Btc??
— Nayib Bukele ?? (@nayibbukele) June 9, 2021
However, accepting the crypto, the 39-year-old president said the government had made history, and that the move would make it easier for Salvadorans living abroad to send money home.
READ ALSO: Five reasons El Salvador want to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender
Bitcoin will become legal tender, alongside the US dollar, in 90 days.
The new law means every business must accept Bitcoin as legal tender for goods or services unless it is unable to provide the technology needed to do the transaction.
More so, the acceptance happened on the same day that former US President Donald Trump said he saw Bitcoin as a “scam”.
“I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar,” he Fox Business.
He added that he wanted the dollar to be “the currency of the world”.
But El Salvador – a small nation where four out of 10 people live in poverty has turned to the top crypto asset that has been backed by billionaires like Elon Musk and large financial companies such as PayPal in a bid to boost its remittance-reliant economy.
El Salvador’s main currency is the US dollar, however, it remains unclear how the country plans to implement bitcoin as a functioning currency.
Yet the Salvadoran leader has hailed the virtual currency as “the fastest-growing way to transfer” billions of dollars in remittances and to prevent millions from being lost to intermediaries.
