El Salvador purchases 80 more Bitcoin

El Salvador, which first decided last September to make Bitcoin legal tender, has in recent days purchased an additional 80 Bitcoin at an average price of $19,000.

El Salvador increases risk by buying an additional 80 Bitcoin

After buying about 500 BTC a month ago at an average price of about $30,000, El Salvador has in recent days decided to buy 80 more, after falling below $20,000. 

The country’s President Nayib Bukele is certainly not the type to be intimidated by market crashes, despite the fact that too low a price could put state coffers in serious trouble.

In the announcement tweet made by the president himself, Bukele reiterates that he sees Bitcoin as the future and also listed all purchases and related prices made.

According to some estimates, which the government of El Salvador immediately disputed in recent days, the losses so far would amount to about $40 million. According to the government, these estimates are exaggerated and since no BTC has been sold, any loss cannot yet be accounted for.

Still no news for the Bitcoin bond

Meanwhile, the Bitcoin bond promised by the country’s authorities has been postponed for the time being, while the IMF has repeatedly called on the country to abandon the legal tender of Bitcoin, stressing the risks such a decision could have on the country’s financial stability. 

This would also have stalled negotiations on a credit line promised by the Fund to get back from a very complicated debt situation. 

For this reason, both Fitch and Moody’s have lowered the country’s rating to CCC in recent weeks. 

Beyond these problems related to the market downgrade, according to a recent report, Bitcoin is not experiencing the hoped-for and expected success among the people of the Central American country, and cryptocurrency adoption is encountering some difficulties. And even the known difficulties encountered by the Chivo wallet used by the government to carry out Bitcoin transactions certainly still seem to limit its use.

According to some data that are neither certain nor confirmed by El Salvadoran authorities, the country may be in possession of some 2,200 BTC, purchased at various times since September last year. The country’s finance minister, Alejandro Zelaya, had said in recent days that the country had sold a small amount of Bitcoin to finance a hospital. But the news was denied after a few hours by the president himself, who had said that he had not made any sales and that the facility had been financed with other resources.


Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/07/01/el-salvador-purchases-80-bitcoin/