El Salvador has been buying one bitcoin a day since 2022, according to President Nayib Bukele, who confirmed that his country’s “1 bitcoin a day program” will continue until the cryptocurrency “becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies.” The bitcoins acquired from El Salvador’s daily purchases are also deposited into the same wallet address used for the […]
Bitcoin News
El Salvador Moves ‘Big Chunk’ of Its BTC to Cold Wallet — President Bukele Says ‘Call It Our First Bitcoin Piggy Bank’
El Salvador has transferred “a big chunk” of its bitcoin holdings to a cold wallet, President Nayib Bukele has announced. “You can call it our first bitcoin piggy bank,” he said. As of writing, the wallet’s balance totals approximately 5,690 bitcoins. El Salvador Establishes Its First ‘Bitcoin Piggy Bank’ El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced […]
Bitcoin News
El Salvador Has More Bitcoin Than Public Estimates With Multiple BTC Revenue Sources, President Bukele Indicates
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has indicated that his country’s bitcoin holdings may exceed public estimates. He revealed that El Salvador has been generating bitcoin-related revenue from various sources in addition to the capital gains from bitcoin purchased since its legalization as a legal tender in the country. ‘El Salvador Is Bitcoin Country’ El […]
Bitcoin News
El Salvador Won’t Sell Its Bitcoin — President Bukele Says ‘at the end 1 BTC = 1 BTC’
El Salvador president, Nayib Bukele, has affirmed that his country will not sell its bitcoin, emphasizing that “At the end 1 BTC = 1 BTC (this was true when the market price was low and it’s true now).” Bukele further shared: “Now that bitcoin’s market price is way up, if we were to sell, we […]
Bitcoin News
Latam Insights: Bukele Wins Presidential Ballot by Landslide, Brazil Strengthens Crypto Tax Oversight
Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: Nayib Bukele wins the presidential elections in El Salvador, the Brazilian tax authority finds over 25,000 irregularities in crypto tax statements, and Argentine President Javier Milei warns there will be no dollarization this […]
Bitcoin News
Bitcoin Pioneer Nayib Bukele Reelected in El Salvador by a Landslide
President Nayib Bukele, a pioneer in introducing the law that made bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, has been reelected as president of the country in the ballot completed on Sunday. The Latam leader, who will reportedly continue implementing bitcoin-related policies, won by a landslide, scoring 85% of the popular vote.
Bitcoin Advocate Nayib Bukele Gets Reelected With 85% of the Popular Vote
Nayib Bukele, the current president of El Salvador, won the presidential election on Sunday by a landslide, an outcome that was predicted by mostly all local polls and reports. The leader, who has been vocal about his support of Bitcoin and introduced the disputed idea of establishing bitcoin as legal tender in a country for the first time, agglomerated the support of most of the Salvadoran society, scoring at least 85% of the popular vote.
Celebrating his victory, Bukele stated:
We have won the presidential election with more than 85% of the votes and a minimum of 58 out of 60 deputies in the Assembly. A record in the entire democratic history of the world.
Furthermore, Bukele invited the Salvadoran people to celebrate the victory in the National Palace.
Felix Ulloa, vice-president of El Salvador, had declared that if Bukele won the presidential ballot by a landslide, he would deepen the application of bitcoin policies, like the program of giving passports to bitcoin entrepreneurs and the issuance of the Volcano bonds, that would provide part of the funding for the construction of Bitcoin City, a planned tax haven for crypto companies.
Even with the popular vote on his side, Bukele’s reelection is surrounded by controversy, given that he received a leave of absence in 2023 to be able to be present at these elections as a candidate. A Bukele-controlled national tribunal established this was a requirement to be reelected back in 2021, a decision that was considered unconstitutional by his detractors.
Nonetheless, Stacy Herbert, director of the National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC) of El Salvador, remarked on the historic victory for the world’s democracy, informing that the previous all-time widest margin for a democratic election was 56.2% in Portugal in 1991.
What do you think about the victory of Bitcoin-friendly President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador? Tell us in the comments section below.
Latam Insights: Bukele Frontrunned Blackrock’s Bitcoin ETF Move, Bitcoin Lease Contracts in Argentina
Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele states they got into Bitcoin before Blackrock, the first bitcoin-settled lease contract goes live in Argentina, and the Venezuelan petro will be liquidated, according to reports.
El Salvador Frontrunned Blackrock on Getting Into Bitcoin
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele celebrated the approval of a myriad of spot Bitcoin ETF products. In a post on X, the leader stated:
So, we got in way before Blackrock.
The landmark approval of these instruments serves as a validation of the model that Bukele instituted in his country, given that El Salvador was the first state nation that approved the use of bitcoin as a legal tender even in the face of criticism by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Today, El Salvador holds about 2,381 BTC in its coffers and has made bitcoin a pivotal part of its state policy, projecting Bitcoin courses to be included in school curriculums, passing laws that give bitcoin donors the possibility of acquiring Salvadoran citizenship, and planning to issue its first Volcano Bonds on Q1 2024.
First Bitcoin-Settled Lease Agreement Goes Live in Argentina
Argentina has reached a milestone in crypto adoption, registering one of the first contracts involving bitcoin payments. According to La Capital, a local Argentine news outlet, the first bitcoin-settled lease agreement was recently signed in Rosario City after the repeal of the lease and rental laws by President Milei’s emergency executive order.
The agreement stipulates that the tenant will pay the equivalent of 0 USDT in Bitcoin to the landlord each month, having selected Fiwind, a national cryptocurrency exchange, as the provider of the referential bitcoin price to execute these payments. The contract also determines that the tenant will execute these payments during the first five days of each month to an address provided by the landlord.
Venezuelan Petro Reportedly to Be Liquidated
The life of the Venezuelan petro, one of the first state-backed cryptocurrencies, might be ending soon. According to reports from Asonacrip, a Venezuelan cryptocurrency group, the government would be preparing to liquidate all the petro in circulation, automatically exchanging them for bolivares, the Venezuelan fiat currency.
The information coincides with the liquidation of other crypto assets held in government-managed wallets, which will also be converted to Venezuelan bolivares on January 15.
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El Salvador Triumphs in Bitcoin Bet — President Nayib Bukele Announces $3.6 Million Profit
El Salvador’s head of state, Nayib Bukele, recently announced that the nation’s bitcoin investment has turned profitable, rebounding from a prolonged period of losses experienced during the majority of last year’s crypto winter. Bukele revealed that the value of the country’s cryptocurrency holdings has risen by .6 million, based on current bitcoin exchange rates.
El Salvador Sees Country’s Bitcoin Investment Turn Profitable
The Latin American nation has been incorporating bitcoin (BTC) into its national reserves, adopting a strategy of dollar-cost averaging since 2022. According to figures from BTC treasury tracking websites, El Salvador’s bitcoin assets amount to 2,381 BTC, valued at slightly above million with the current exchange rates. On Monday, Bukele enthusiastically shared on the social media platform X that El Salvador’s BTC financial statement had successfully transitioned into the black.
“El Salvador’s bitcoin investments are in the black,” Bukele wrote. “After literally thousands of articles and hit pieces that ridiculed our supposed losses, all of which were calculated based on bitcoin’s market price at the time,” the Salvadoran president added. Bukele emphasized that with the prevailing exchange rates, El Salvador is poised not just to recover its initial investment in bitcoin but to also gain a profit of .6 million. Bukele added:
Of course, we have no intention of selling; that has never been our objective. We are fully aware that the price will continue to fluctuate in the future, this doesn’t affect our long-term strategy.
The latest statement from Bukele comes in the wake of similar positive financial reports from Microstrategy concerning its BTC investments. The leader of El Salvador stressed the importance of critics and writers of negative articles reconsidering their positions, urging them to “take back their statements.”
Bukele suggested that it would be appropriate and the “responsible thing to do would be for them to issue retractions, offer apologies, or, at the very least, acknowledge that El Salvador is now yielding a profit, just as they repeatedly reported that we were incurring losses.”
What do you think about the Salvadoran President’s recent statements about the country’s national reserves of bitcoin? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
OCCRP Investigation Alleges Bukele Embezzled $200 Million for Bitcoin Projects in El Salvador
An investigation led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) alleges that Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, deviated hundreds of millions of dollars granted by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to develop the project of making bitcoin legal tender.
OCCRP States Nayib Bukele Embezzled Funds to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender in El Salvador
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) recently revealed an investigation that determined Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, embezzled funds to complete Bitcoin-related projects in the country. The report, published on October 31, states that the government used resources provided by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) as a loan to fund part of the process of making bitcoin legal tender in the nation.
The loan, which was provided by CABEI back in 2021, was directed to alleviate the economic problems of the nation, strengthening financing of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the investigation, of the 0 million lent, only a fraction — million — was used for its intended purposes.
Instead, budget documents allegedly reviewed by OCCRP associates in the country show that 5 million was directed to fulfill “general state obligations.”
The Bitcoin Connection
But the investigation goes even further. The OCCRP found that out of these 5 million, more than 0 million were directed to help make bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador.
At that time, CABEI announced its public support for the Bitcoin project. In June 2021, CABEI’s president Dante Mossi explained the institution would help the country in this process.
Mossi had stated:
This is great news for the region. We are very proud to be the first to receive the request from the Government of El Salvador in this transformative process that is making history again today, by being the first country to adopt bitcoin as an official currency.
Nonetheless, the terms of the 0 million loan prohibited the country from using these resources to fund Bitcoin-related activities, given that earlier studies had estimated El Salvador would have to make extensive legal and regulatory reforms and that these would need extensive funding.
Mossi explained:
Basically, it says there’s a covenant in El Salvador, that no money from CABEI could be used to fund any Bitcoin activity. So we don’t, we don’t fund that.
The “bitcoinization” process of El Salvador is also facing several complaints made by Cristosal, a nonprofit organization. In November 2022, Cristosal filed three legal actions against the Salvadoran government related to the management of funds that Bukele used to purchase bitcoin, the construction of the Chivo national network of Bitcoin ATMs, and the alleged identity theft of more than 200 citizens using the Chivo network.
What do you think about the recently published OCCRP report? Tell us in the comments section below.
President Nayib Bukele Touts El Salvador as the ‘New Land of the Free’ in Vintage Americana Poster Featuring Bitcoin as Legal Tender
President Nayib Bukele is promoting El Salvador as the “new land of the free,” as part of an invitation for foreigners to move to the Latam country. Bukele tweeted a poster in vintage American style that included several advantages that the country brings its citizen, including the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender.
EL Salvador’s ‘New Land of the Free’ Campaign Invites People to Move in With Bitcoin as Legal Tender
President Nayib Bukele is inviting people to move to El Salvador. Bukele posted a poster in vintage American style where he depicts a classic American family in a living room, calling his country “the new land of the free,” a motto usually applicable to the U.S.
The poster serves to exhibit the achievements that, according to him, his government has reached, principally in the security and monetary policy areas. The poster calls for people to move to El Salvador, explaining that there are “no fentanyl crisis,” “no shootings” and “no lootings,” as a product of the tight security measures that the government has taken during 2022 and 2023.
Also, the poster features the adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender, with El Salvador being the first country in the world that presents this option to tourists and residents. Also, president Bukele has made statements about easing the way of migrants by proposing to give Salvadoran citizenship via bitcoin investments.
Achievements Among Criticism
To some, the poster appears to celebrate the new face that Bukele has brought to El Salvador, making a clear comparison to what the U.S. represented back in the sixties. While heavily criticized for possible violations of human rights in its battle against gangs, Bukele has made security a priority in the country. According to reports, El Salvador finished 2022 with its homicide rate plummeting by 56.8%. Also, Bukele celebrated a milestone of 300 days without homicides on February 14.
However, to get to this point, Bukele had to establish an exception state, with curfews for the population while waging an all-out war with the Maras Salvatruchas, the biggest national gang, since March 2022.
In the poster, great weather and beaches are also promoted. Bukele had stated before that the recovery of tourism in the country, one of the fastest in the world after the Covid-19 pandemic, was in part thanks to the inclusion of bitcoin in the economy of the country and also because of surf.
Bukele has also announced significant investments in landmark beaches like El Zonte, known as Bitcoin Beach due to its adoption. In August, the Salvadoran government destined an investment of 3 million to build support infrastructure for the region including a new drainage system, bridges, and bicycle roads.
What do you think about Bukele’s ‘new land of the free’ poster? Tell us in the comments section below.