El Salvador has just purchased 200 new pieces. We now hold 400 #bitcoin#BitcoinDay 🇸🇻 The enthusiasm generated abroad by the Salvadoran government`s decision does not have the same acceptance among many people in the country, who perceive this decision as an echo of the financial colonialism that the global cryptocurrency movement is trying to undermine. Bukele is adamant about the criticism. «Salvadorans already know me and know that I would never do anything but to their advantage,» he said on Twitter in June. «We all use bitcoins,» he said, although there is an awareness that with cryptocurrencies, your money «can go up just as it could go down.» El Salvador`s new policies place it at the forefront of a revolution in blockchain funding, where a parallel universe of cryptocurrency-based alternative banking services is booming and is causing concern among officials in Washington and other centers of power. El Salvador celebrates its first year on September 7± or as the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. Although the event itself was unprecedented, it is now a question of how long El Salvador managed to use this initiative. It is estimated that the Salvadoran Bitcoin wallet will have about 2,381 coins± or about $107.1 million. The purchases were reported by President Nayib Bukele`s networks. The goal of accepting Bitcoin as an optional payment method will serve to «open up more business opportunities for all types of businesses, reduce costs, and attract tourists from anywhere in the world,» according to the government itself. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, the global wealth management firm, has doubts about how the government fund works, but believes cryptocurrencies can help El Salvador «free itself from the yoke of dollar colonialism» by implementing creative investment methods that bypass traditional channels and Bitcoin mining operations that exploit natural resources. The initial announcement was made at the Bitcoin 2021 conference, a meeting in Miami, where Nayib Bukele announced that his country would pass laws that would make it the first sovereign nation to adopt Bitcoin as its legal tender. In his own words, the measure would give «financial inclusion» to 70% of the Salvadoran population ± does not have a bank account and works in the informal economy.

After the passage of the law – which included obligations, such as the fact that every commercial agent must accept crypto as a means of payment – praise and criticism came. The new law states that all businesses must accept Bitcoins as a means of payment. The government will also create a $150 million public trust to facilitate the conversion of dollars, among other things. On the other hand, at the «WorldCrypto Metaverse Day» event held a few days ago at the WiZink Center in Madrid, Spain±± Salvadoran legislators highlighted the role of Bitcoin in their country and, last August, the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, mentioned that the recovery of tourism in his country was largely due to Bitcoin. To bolster its use, the government launched Chivo Wallet, a digital wallet for mobile devices that included a $30 bonus to encourage adoption, as well as installing about 200 ATMs to work with bitcoins and dollars. In November 2021, Bitcoin reached the highest price in its history to date: $69,000 ±, which meant a profit of more than 350% last year. However, in January of this year± the IMF called on the government of El Salvador to eliminate Bitcoin as legal tender after claiming that it posed «serious risks to financial and market integrity.» This friction with the international company led S&P Global Ratings, as well as Moody`s Investors Rating and Fitch Ratings, to lower the rating of the country of El Salvador from «CCC+» to «B-â». The worst news for El Salvador came with the general market slowdown from the middle of this year±. The 2,381 bitcoins purchased by the Salvadoran government± are now worth just under $50 million, less than half of what the country paid for it.

According to Moodyâs, the country will have invested about $375 million in the entire deployment of the operation, including administrative costs, the use of the Chivo wallet and up to a $150 million fund to support the conversion of bitcoins into dollars.