Last month, Bitcoin was adopted as legal tender in El Salvador, joining the U.S. dollar. The country's new Bitcoin Law, which will be enforced starting Sept. 7, will allow Salvadorans to use Bitcoin (BTC) as a currency to purchase goods and services, as well as to pay taxes and debt. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has stated that Bitcoin adoption will hugely benefit the 70% of the local population that lacks access to banking services. He also believes that it will attract investments and create new jobs. However, the Bitcoin Law has raised multiple concerns. Skeptics say the cryptocurrency's high …

The International Monetary Fund is warning that some of the consequences of a country adopting Bitcoin as a national currency “could be dire.” According to IMF marketing department financial counsellor and director Tobias Adrian and legal department general counsel and director Rhoda Weeks-Brown, a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin (BTC) may catch on in countries without stable inflation and exchange rates and provide unbanked people with the means to make payments. However, the cost to an economy could be significant. The two IMF officials alleged that countries adopting cryptocurrencies as national currencies or “granting cryptoassets legal tender status” risked domestic prices becoming …

Protesters calling themselves the Popular Resistance and Rebellion Block have come out against El Salvador’s government passing a law making Bitcoin legal tender. A Tuesday tweet from local news outlet El Mundo shows Salvadorans carrying banners saying “No to Bitcoin” in the streets of San Salvador demanding a repeal of the country's Bitcoin Law. Legislative assembly members Anabel Belloso and Dina Argueta addressed the protesters after first meeting the group separated by a barrier of razor wire. RT @SusanaPenate: Miembros del Bloque de Resistencia y Rebeldía Popular llegaron a presentar una propuesta de derogar la Ley Bitcoin. Salen a recibirlos …

American megabank JPMorgan has continued criticizing El Salvador’s declaration of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, warning of the potential risks for both the country and the cryptocurrency. A JPMorgan expert group led by economist Steven Palacio released a report suggesting that El Salvador adopting BTC as legal tender could put a strain on the Bitcoin network, Bloomberg reported Sunday. The experts said that Bitcoin is highly illiquid, noting that most Bitcoin trading volumes are internalized by major exchanges, with more than 90% of Bitcoin not changing hands in more than a year. The use of Bitcoin as legal tender in …

Paraguayan Congressperson Carlitos Rejala and Senator Fernando Silva Facetti are planning to introduce a Bitcoin (BTC) bill to Congress on Wednesday, July 14, underscoring the lawmakers’ urgency in formulating a coherent digital asset strategy for their country. “I am here to unite Paraguay,” Rejala tweeted Friday, adding that he and his fellow lawmaker are planning a “mega surprise for Paraguay and the world.” I am here to unite Paraguay , that is why we decided with Senator @FSilvaFacetti to present together the bill #bitcoin on Wednesday, July 14! Stay tuned since there will be a mega surprise for Paraguay and …

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC, a United Nations’ regional commission to encourage economic cooperation, is the latest regulator to raise concerns about El Salvador’s decision to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. ECLAC executive secretary Alicia Bárcena has warned that El Salvador’s Bitcoin move poses a number of systemic risks as well as risks related to money laundering, local news agency Diario El Mundo reported Friday. Bárcena emphasized that there is no study yet that would have investigated potential risks or benefits of El Salvador accepting BTC as legal tender. She expressed confidence that …

According to a newly released survey, up to three-quarters of Salvadorans are skeptical over President Nayib Bukele’s Bitcoin adoption plans. The survey, which polled 1,233 people across El Salvador between July 1 and 4, revealed that only 20% approved of the plan to make Bitcoin legal tender The survey, which has a margin of error of 2.8%, was conducted by researcher Disruptiva, which is affiliated with Francisco Gavidia University. According to Reuters, it found that about 54% of people viewed the Bitcoin adoption program as “not at all correct”, while another 24% described it as “only a little correct.” Almost …

Wouter Witvoet, CEO of DeFi Technologies: “In the past, El Salvador struggled with trust in its monetary policy, so in 2001, it ‘dollarized’ its economy and effectively gave control of its monetary system to the U.S. Federal Reserve. It saw the U.S. dollar as a more stable, trustworthy currency than its own. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, the U.S. has been pursuing a very experimental form of monetary policy involving tools like quantitative easing and a central bank that now directly monetizes, or purchases, government-issued debt to keep interest rates low. This is a playbook that is dictated by …

The U.S. Department of State’s Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said El Salvador should ensure Bitcoin is well regulated under its new legal framework. In a Wednesday press conference following a meeting with President Nayib Bukele, Nuland said the United States was taking a “tough look at Bitcoin” following the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline and suggested El Salvador take a similar approach. The country passed a law in June making Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender, legislation that will go into effect on Sept. 7. "I did suggest to the President that whatever Salvador chooses to …

Over the years, Bitcoin has been able to overcome naysayers by frequently reinventing its narrative. Because Bitcoin (BTC) is multifaceted, it is able to quickly change to confront new criticism. We have seen this over the years. For example, Bitcoin used to be frequently assailed by the media for its volatility — many articles pushed the notion that Bitcoin was too volatile to ever succeed as a currency. We do not hear too much about Bitcoin’s volatility today, in part because observers have been accustomed to its frequent price swings, but mostly because “Bitcoiners” have coalesced around the notion of …

The latest announcement from El Salvador's pro-Bitcoin president, Nayib Bukele, has clarified that citizens will not be forced to use the government-issued “Chivo” Bitcoin wallet. In a tweet on June 29, El Salvador’s President Bukele stated he wanted to clear up any misinformation regarding the government’s wallet application following the passing of the country’s Bitcoin law on June 9, which will take effect on September 7. The new Bitcoin wallet is called Chivo, which is slang for “cool” in El Salvador, and it can hold both Bitcoin and U.S. dollars. Bukele stated it is just one of many crypto wallets …

The president of El Salvador has announced the government will airdrop $30 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to every adult citizen of the country. The announcement was welcomed by Bitcoiners, with influencers speculating that El Salvador’s government will need to purchase the required BTC it intends to distribute adding more than $100 million in buying pressure on markets. Quickly googled estimates of the adult population of El Salvador varied, with on-chain analyst Willy Woo tweeting that Bitcoin’s global user base will grow by 2.5% thanks to the influx of 4.5 million Salvadorans. Others placed the Salvadoran adult population as high as …