U.S. company Athena intends to supply El Salvador’s new crypto-based economy with 1500 Bitcoin ATMs, a company representative has confirmed. The rollout will start small, trialing a few dozen machines to establish a business model. The Chicago headquartered firm plans to invest more than $1 million to install cryptocurrency ATMs, targeting regions where residents receive remittances from abroad. Along with installing the new machines it will also hire staff and open an office to carry out operations in El Salvador. Athena currently operates just two ATMs of this type in El Salvador, one at El Zonte beach as part of …

Powers On... is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law, where he teaches a course on “Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.” While attending the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami two weeks ago, several things struck me as interesting and significant. While many others have already reported on the conference, my focus will be on a handful of comments or events that I believe are …

El Salvador’s grand plans to promote Bitcoin adoption could be turned on their head if President Bukele’s Bitcoin Law is proven to be unconstitutional in the country’s courts. A group of citizens joining forces with political party, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), has filed a lawsuit claiming President Bukele’s Bitcoin adoption program is unconstitutional. FMLN legislator, Jaime Guevara, led the move along with citizens including plaintiff Óscar Artero, who characterize the country’s Bitcoin Law as “lacking in legality, foundation, and did not consider the significance and harmful effects that such a law will cause to the country,” according to …

Russian industrial tycoon Oleg Deripaska is the latest figure to criticize the Bank of Russia’s stance on cryptocurrency regulation in the country. Deripaska took to his official Telegram channel on Thursday to blast the Russian central bank for pressuring local industry to avoid getting involved into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The Russian oligarch pointed out that even small countries like El Salvador have moved into Bitcoin by recognizing it as legal tender: “Even poor El Salvador, known for being close to oft-mentioned Honduras, has realized the need for digital currencies and taken a simple path, recognizing Bitcoin as a means …

For much of its life, Bitcoin (BTC) has been viewed mainly as a speculative financial instrument, but El Salvador’s dramatic move in making BTC a legal tender is a reminder that cryptocurrencies can play a role in uplifting the world’s less-well-off citizens. Two surprising facts emerged on the global stage at the start of June: First, 70% of El Salvador’s population do not have bank accounts, and second, remittances — i.e., money sent home from workers abroad — are fueling El Salvador’s economy, accounting for an astonishing 23% of the gross domestic product. In this regard, Chainalysis was prescient last …

Environmental concerns regarding the energy-intensive, proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism that Bitcoin (BTC) uses to produce new coins and verify transactions have been front and center lately. Debates regarding Bitcoin’s energy use particularly surged following a tweet sent out by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in May saying that his company would no longer accept Bitcoin payments due to the network’s “increasingly rapid use of fossil fuels.” Since then, a number of ways Bitcoin mining companies could go green have been discussed, many of which include using 100% renewable energy sources. For example, El Salvador president Nayib Bukele recently disclosed plans for a …

There’s never a dull day when it comes to crypto as was exemplified recently when the digital asset market dipped by around 50%, eventually taking the total capitalization from its all-time high of $2.5 trillion to around $1.7 trillion. As was expected, in the wake of all this turbulence, Michael Saylor-led business intelligence firm MicroStrategy announced that it was all set to “buy the dip” — successfully concluding its $500-million offering of secured notes. To further elaborate on the matter, per a statement released by the company, it was revealed that MicroStrategy had been able to facilitate a sale of …

El Salvador’s Minister of Labor and Social Welfare has said that the country is not yet ready to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) for salary payments. In a Wednesday tweet, Rolando Castro denied local reports which claimed that his ministry had begun analyzing the possibility of Bitcoin-based salaries with officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy on Monday. Castro stressed that he was just answering a question, stating that it was “too premature to talk about wages.” The official added that he is now focused on finding more and better jobs for El Salvadoreans. “Monetary issues fall under …

Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, has warned that El Salvador’s recent adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender has the potential to “completely collapse the economy.” Steve Hanke served as a senior economist under President Ronald Reagan’s administration from 1981 to 1982. Hanke has previously described BTC as a speculative asset “with a fundamental value of zero,” and in April, the 78-year-old tweeted, “Cryptocurrencies are the future of money. Bitcoin is not.” Speaking with streaming financial news provider Kitco News on Tuesday, the university professor noted that BTC hodlers from regions such as Russia …

Rolando Castro, the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare in El Salvador has said that the government is discussing whether companies in the country should pay their employees in Bitcoin. According to local radio station 107.7 Fuego GMV, Castro has discussed the issue of employers paying their workers in Bitcoin (BTC) with officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy. His remarks come a week after the country’s Legislative Assembly approved the use of the cryptocurrency as legal tender. El Salvador’s 2001 Law of Monetary Integration, which provided the legislative framework to eventually replace the Salvadoran colón …

Despite El Salvador’s recently passed law mandating Bitcoin as legal tender, local remittance firms are reportedly hesitant to adopt Bitcoin (BTC). Speaking to Reuters, Autonomous Research fintech analyst Kenneth Suchoski argued that remittance firms are unlikely to launch support for Bitcoin and other crypto assets until prompted to do so by customer demand, likely creating a stalemate for the local payments industry. “For Western Union and some of the other remittance providers, keep in mind that most of the volume in the remittance industry is going from developed markets to emerging markets primarily to people — families and friends — …

The cryptocurrency space and wider economic community continue to laud a historic move by El Salvador to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. The Central American country has become the first in the world to do so, and the move has also spurred a handful of other Central and South American countries to begin taking steps toward that same eventuality. Unsurprisingly, the move has made waves in the cryptocurrency community, with Bitcoin (BTC) proponents, in particular, highlighting the significance of the legislative change in driving cryptocurrency adoption. There have been some critics who have highlighted potential coercive undertones of the law, …