El Salvador is experiencing continued growth in various sectors after making Bitcoin legal tender in September 2021. Ambassador Milena Mayorga reports the rising numbers on Twitter.
El Salvador: Milena Mayorga reports on the country’s Bitcoin growth figures
In a roundup of tweets, El Salvador’s Ambassador to the US, Milena Mayorga, shared the growing data in the country’s different sectors of legal Bitcoin.
¡#ElSalvador es la tierra del #bitcoin , el surf, increíbles destinos y excelente opción para invertir! 🇸🇻
Somos uno de los 30 destinos para visitar en 2023! @lonelyplanet
El turismo ha generado 62,000 trabajadores, $2,077 millones en divisas y más de 2 millones de visitantes
— Milena Mayorga (@MilenaMayorga) November 21, 2022
“More than 1,000 visitors attended the AdoptingBTC conference. Bookings on Airbnb in El Salvador grew by 290%. Our diaspora is investing in more than 151 projects with more than $420 million. 960,000 people have benefited from $106 million from the IDB. El Salvador is the land of Bitcoin, surfing, amazing destinations and great choice for investment! We are one of 30 destinations to visit in 2023 by LonelyPlanet. Tourism has generated 62,000 workers, $2,077 million in foreign exchange and more than 2 million visitors.”
Not only that, Mayorga adds that up to last October, exports recorded $763 million more than the same period in 2021 and that 54 new export companies were created. Forecasts say that by the end of 2022, exports in particular will grow by 14% and remittances by 3.7%.
Hence, the Tourism, Investment and Export sectors are the ones in El Salvador that are benefiting from the legalization of Bitcoin.
El Salvador grows, but Vitalik Buterin says Bitcoin fans ignore non-democratic government
While El Salvador rejoices in its growth as a Bitcoin country, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin wanted to share an accusation of his own toward Bitcoin fans, telling them that they are ignoring the country’s non-democratic government.
In this regard, Buterin said:
“This is one of my criticisms of the Bitcoin community: they just automatically love everyone rich and powerful who supports Bitcoin. […] a lot of Bitcoin people ignored the fact that Bukele’s government is not a very democratic government that actually has a lot of problems, and they are not that good at respecting other people’s freedoms.”
Not only that, Buterin also criticizes the choice by Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, to adopt Bitcoin as a legal currency at a time when the price was too high (around $45,000), expecting that it would continue to rise even after its ATH or all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021.
As of today, after one year of “crypto winter” with a price drop of more than 76%, such a choice turns out to be not very sustainable for Buterin.
El Salvador will buy one BTC a day
The continuing crypto bearish trend had led El Salvador to halt its investments in Bitcoin for a few months, remaining silent in the press for a while.
A few days ago, however, this silence was broken by President Nayib Bukele himself, who decided to make new statements.
And indeed, Bukele said that the country will return to investing in BTC now on a daily basis, by buying one per day.
At the moment, El Salvador holds 2,381 BTC bought at an average price of $43,357, or a total spending of around $100 million, which today is worth almost $40 million.
Regarding Bitcoin ATMs, El Salvador appears to have no longer implemented strategies to increase its crypto ATM installations for 2022.
And in fact, in the world ranking of installed Bitcoin ATMs, El Salvador, with its 212 installed ATMs, has relinquished its third place to Spain, which currently hosts 260 crypto ATMs.
Changpeng CZ Zhao of Binance denies El Salvador’s involvement with FTX
El Salvador was also involved in the collapse of FTX in recent weeks, albeit only in rumors. Akin to some exchanges or cryptocurrencies, rumors were circulating about the country where Bitcoin is legal that El Salvador may have some of its BTC funds deposited in FTX.
Publicly debunking that rumor was actually the CEO of Binance, Chanpeng CZ Zhao who reported that he exchanged messages with Bukele receiving confirmation that the country does not have any BTC deposits in FTX and that they have never dealt with them.
Not only that, when sharing this news CZ allegedly also added a “Thank God,” expressing gratitude that an entire country was not involved with what turns out to be the most serious collapse in crypto history.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/11/22/el-salvador-grows-bitcoin/