Bitcoin Crash: El Salvador’s Crypto Investment Loses Over $50 Million In Value, But President Nayib Bukele Seems Undeterred
El Salvador has so far bought 2,301 Bitcoins.
El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender alongside the US dollar in September 2020. Despite criticisms from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several credit agencies, the Central American nation kept on adding BTCs to its national reserve and even went on to reveal plans to set up a crypto trading hub called Bitcoin City. However, owing to the recent crash in BTC prices and the overall crypto market cooldown, the country’s investments are losing value, estimated to be over $50 million.
Since adopting Bitcoin, the El Salvador government, led by pro-crypto President Nayib Bukele, has so far bought 2,301 BTCs, worth $103 million. Owing to the recent crash, the country’s BTC holdings are now valued at $51 million.
Bukele, however, seems unfazed by the crypto bloodbath. On June 15, he took to Twitter to share the news of El Salvador Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya saying the decrease in Bitcoin investment doesn’t even represent 0.5 percent of the country’s national budget. Bukele wrote, “You’re telling me we should buy more #BTC?”
You’re telling me we should buy more #BTC? https://t.co/jwvn0A1kTb
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) June 14, 2022
ALSO SEE: EXPLAINED | Bitcoin City: What Is It? How Will It Benefit Citizens? Can You Invest?
Earlier this month, Zelaya said the country’s announced Bitcoin bond will be delayed. During an interview, Zelaya was asked if El Salvador’s plans with the bond issuance had changed. He replied, “No, not yet, the [Bitcoin] price continues to be disrupted by the war in Ukraine… In the short term, the variations are constant but in the long term it always tends to appreciate in value.” He added, “There is a future and there is an economic innovation [in Bitcoin] that we must bet on.”
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