Yesterday Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, confirmed that the government bought his first 200 Bitcoins (BTC), before the launch of the new law that will officially make cryptocurrency a legal tender.
“Our brokers will buy many more as the deadline approaches“, he has affirmed Bukele, referring to the day of the full implementation of the new legislation focused on BTC:
“El Salvador has just bought its first 200 coins. Our brokers will be buying many more as the deadline approaches.”
El Salvador has just bought it’s first 200 coins.
Our brokers will be buying a lot more as the deadline approaches.#BitcoinDay #BTC
– Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 6, 2021
The purchase is part of the new $ 150 million Bitcoin fund, approved last week by the Salvadoran Congress. The fund will be used to facilitate conversions from BTC to US dollars in preparation for the implementation of the new law. At current prices, the purchase of BTC is worth just over $ 10.36 million.
In June of this year, El Salvador became the first country in the world to declare that it wants to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. Although the decision was met with praise by the BTC community, detractors from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund warned that the new strategy would not be a good idea. More recently, domestic opposition has seen hundreds of people across the country protest the new Bitcoin law.
Related: President of El Salvador announces infrastructure for Bitcoin adoption will soon be ready
Meanwhile, Bank of America recently outlined at least four potential benefits from El Salvador’s pro-Bitcoin policy. In a report released in July, the bank said that the country’s adoption of BTC could simplify remittances, promote financial digitization, offer greater choice to consumers and open the country to foreign investors.
The new Bitcoin law offers Salvadorans the option of holding the digital asset as part of a long-term investment strategy or withdrawing it for cash at any of the 200 ATMs installed across the country. El Salvador is also building infrastructure to support a state-issued, baptized wallet Billy Goat.
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