The finance minister of El Salvador, Alejandro Zelaya, revealed the country’s future plans about crypto and claimed that their Bitcoin bet has been working fine for the country, in an interview with Bloomberg.
The Latin American country made Bitcoin a legal tender in the country in September 2021. Zelaya revealed that Bitcoin helped them bring financial services to a largely unbanked population and also attracted tourism and investments.
Over the last year, El Salvador has purchased 2,381 Bitcoins as a part of its public funds. According to data by Bloomberg, the country has faced a loss of 50 percent on its investment.
Initially, El Salvador had planned to offer $1 billion in bonds in March, but the government postponed it due to unfavorable market conditions. In June, when bitcoin saw a dip of 65 percent from its high, the finance officials claimed that the financial danger was “extremely minimal.”
The use of Bitcoin as a mode of exchange is comparatively low. According to a survey by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research, many consumers prefer paying in currency over Bitcoin. But Zelaya believes that digital currencies have a bigger role to play in the future.
He said, “We aren’t going to have results overnight. We can’t go to bed poor and wake up millionaires. New technologies have shown how people in previous years were afraid of things like websites and digital business, but it’s been shown through time that reality imposes itself.”
Zelaya revealed that the El Salvador government is moving ahead with its “Bitcoin city” plan and will launch some Bitcoin projects in the coming months. The government also intends to issue bitcoin-backed bonds using blockchain technology.
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Source: https://coinpedia.org/regulations/el-salvadors-finance-minister-weighs-in-on-the-countrys-bitcoin-strategy/