Bitcoin Conference in El Salvador Attracts 44 Countries

El Salvador’s president has announced that 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities will convene in the country to discuss bitcoin. 

The meeting of 44 countries will focus on financial inclusion, digital economies, and more, president Nayib Bukele announced on Twitter.

Countries include those from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The meeting will focus on “financial inclusion, digital economies, banking the unbanked, the bitcoin rollout and its benefits in our country.”

It is clear why officials from these countries want to discuss bitcoin and other aspects of cryptocurrencies to see how they can stand to gain an advantage. 

El Salvador was the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, which piqued the interest of others. The Central African Republic recently became the second country to legalize the cryptocurrency.

Many developing countries are considering working with digital currencies to improve their local economies. They are keeping a close eye on El Salvador to see how its experiment plays out.

Global financial authorities are also closely monitoring El Salvador’s economy. Both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have warned of economic risks, and their interests are primarily related to risk aversion. 

The market’s recent drop will only raise those concerns even further. El Salvador has been heavily affected by the recent market crash, as the country had bought a lot of bitcoin.

Bitcoin has since picked up a little since the bloodbath first began, and the cryptocurrency briefly crossed the $30,000 mark. There are some tentative signs of a recovery, though the overall sentiment is still one of bearishness.

How is El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment faring?

The crash has questioned El Salvador’s use of bitcoin as legal tender. There had already been both internal and external objections to the decision, with citizens protesting. Volatility has been the biggest concern, and bitcoin’s wild swings in recent times will not help the matter.

But that does not seem to have deterred the country. It recently bought the dip and added 500 BTC to its state coffers.

There have also been some positive changes. Tourism in El Salvador increased by 30% since it made bitcoin legal tender. A Mexican senator also appears to have been convinced enough to also consider legalizing bitcoin.

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