Months after Bitcoin (BTC) became legal tender in El Salvador, a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that 20% of businesses have started to accept BTC as a payment method. The study, surveying adults from 1,800 households in El Salvador, aimed to measure the adoption of BTC in the country after the Bitcoin Law was passed. The researchers found that BTC is gaining ground compared to other payment methods. According to the report, users who have downloaded the government-backed Chivo Wallet have “decreased their use of cash by 10%, while their net use of debit …

60 Minutes, the CBS news show that has been running since 1968, will feature El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach in a new episode airing April 10. According to a Friday post from 60 Minutes’ Twitter account, the investigative news show will air a segment on the crypto-friendly area of El Zonte, a village located in El Salvador, where residents and visitors have been able to use Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for anything from utility bills to tacos. Sharyn Alfonsi, a journalist and correspondent for the show, interviewed Mike Peterson, one of the people who funded the project and encouraged crypto adoption …

Samson Mow, former chief strategy officer of Blockstream and founder of Pixelmatic, said on Thursday that he has started a new company called JAN3 which will focus on accelerating Bitcoin adoption. The Chinese-Canadian Bitcoin entrepreneur told Reuters that JAN3 has already signed a memorandum of understanding to assist in developing digital infrastructure in El Salvador. "It's a general MOU that says we'll work together to build digital infrastructure for the country and for Bitcoin City.” Mow added that making the decision for JAN3 to work with El Salvador was an easy choice, "I just set up my company and I …

Two members of the House of Representatives have introduced legislation aimed at mitigating the risks to the United States financial system due to El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal currency. In a Monday announcement, California Representative Norma Torres and Arkansas Representative Rick Crawford proposed legislation which would direct the State Department to create a plan mitigating the potential risks to the U.S. financial system based on an analysis of the risks to El Salvador’s “cybersecurity, economic stability, and democratic governance” following the country recognizing Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in September 2021. The Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador Act …

While crypto markets are still in a state of “fear,” as evidenced by Bitcoin’s Fear & Greed Index, the industry as a whole is giving us reasons to be bullish. Large venture funding rounds, growing adoption of decentralized governance models and new institutional-grade product offerings suggest that crypto is more than just daily chart patterns. This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter looks at a new Grayscale product that’s giving accredited investors more ways to bet on the so-called “Ethereum killers.” We also document two funding stories and draw your attention to the latest developments surrounding El Salvador’s Bitcoin (BTC) bond. Grayscale …

El Salvador president Nayib Bukele reacted to the news that the recently proposed Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador Act (ACES) had passed the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will now head to a full Senate vote. The 40-year old national leader responded emotionally on Twitter: Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the US Government would be afraid of what we are doing here. pic.twitter.com/QgJPa70mn0 — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 23, 2022 On Wednesday, March 23, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the bill, sponsored by Senators James Risch, Bill Cassidy, and Bob Menendez. The …

An official at the Ministry of Finance of Malaysia reportedly opposed the idea of adopting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment method following recent crypto-friendly proposals by the deputy communications minister. Malaysia has no plans to recognize BTC as legal tender, deputy finance minister Mohd Shahar Abdullah said in a parliamentary meeting on Thursday, according to a Bloomberg report. “Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not suitable for use as a payment instrument due to various limitations,” Mohd Shahar declared, citing risks like volatility and potential cyber threats. Instead of adopting cryptocurrency for payments, Malaysia will continue to focus on the …

Bitcoin (BTC) returned to $43,000 on March 24 as new purchases by Blockchain protocol Terra fuelled optimism. The BTC buys keep coming Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD attempting to crack and secure its highest levels in weeks Thursday. The pair had consolidated day before, the sideways action on lower timeframes giving way to a "grind" upwards, which took Bitcoin to $43,492 — a price last seen March 3. Terra, which had become a focus of attention over plans for a giant $10 billion BTC allocation, had sent Tether (USDT) from its alleged wallet worth almost $750 …

The government of El Salvador has reportedly decided to postpone the issue of a Bitcoin (BTC)-backed bond due to the unfavorable market conditions fueled by the geopolitical crisis. El Salvador’s “Volcano Bond” will not go live in March as the Salvadoran government expected previously, finance minister Alejandro Zelaya said in an interview with a local TV channel. Zelaya claimed that the delay was due to the volatile prices of BTC fueled by the Russia-Ukraine crisis. He added that the government of El Salvador decided to wait for favorable conditions in the financial market, expecting September at the latest, stating: “Now …

Considering the absence of any official announcements, El Salvador’s government seems to have delayed the launch date of the so-called “volcano bonds.” Earlier, Salvadoran finance minister Alejandro Zelaya had been reassuring the public that the project would start off by March 20. Speaking at the local TV show on Friday, El Salvador’s finance minister once again announced that the launch of so-called “volcano bonds” should take place somewhere between March 15 and 20 — the same dates were declared during his previous TV appearance in February. Albeit this time Zelaya mentioned the unstable political situation in the world as one …

Businesses in El Salvador have been slow to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) ever since the country famously recognized the digital asset as legal tender in September 2021, according to a recent survey by the Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce. Of the 337 companies polled between Jan. 15 and Feb. 9, only 14% said they had transacted in BTC since the Bitcoin Law came into effect. Over 90% of the companies indicated that Bitcoin adoption in the country had little impact on their sales. Seventy-one percent of the companies polled were micro or small businesses, 13% classified as medium-sized enterprises and 16% were …

Lord Fusitu’a, a former member of the Tongan Parliament, has shared a timeline for the country’s plan to adopt Bitcoin (BTC). A Tongan nobleman, Fusitu’a had previously disclosed the four-step plan, a copy of the Salvadoran Bitcoin playbook. Step one is remittance, two is legal tender, three is Bitcoin mining and four is moving national treasuries into Bitcoin, effectively upgrading the nation onto a Bitcoin standard. During a Twitter spaces conversation, Fusitu’a shed light on steps two and three, providing a timeline for when these changes could come into place. Lord Fusitu’a told Cointelegraph: “Let’s say the [legal tender] bill …