Two New Territories Are Adopting Bitcoin

Prospera, jurisdiction on the Roatán island off of the northern coast of Honduras, and Madeira, an autonomous region in Portugal, are adopting bitcoin as de facto legal tender—the latest territories to do so, following El Salvador’s official recognition of the asset in September 2021.

Today’s announcements were made on the very stage where Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele made history last April. Bukele was also scheduled to appear at the conference later this afternoon but canceled the visit after his government declared a state of emergency amidst a wave of gang-related killings.

In Prospera, residents won’t have to pay capital gains tax on bitcoin and will be able to pay taxes and fees to the jurisdiction using the cryptocurrency, said Joel Bomgar, Prospera’s president, and Samson Mow, former Chief Strategy Officer of bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream (He has recently left the firm to focus on nation-state bitcoin adoption.)

Starting today, Prospera will also enable ‘enable other municipalities in Honduras or other companies or political subdivisions outside of the United States to float bitcoin bonds from within the Prospera jurisdiction,” said Bomgar. This is “an incredible way to bring foreign direct investments to the part of the world that needs it most,” he added. The launch of the first bitcoin bond, designed by Mow for El Salvador, has recently been postponed due to ‘unfavorable market conditions.’

Bomgar and Mow were joined by Miguel Albuquerque, president of the Regional Government of Madeira in Portugal, who announced that Madeira’s residents won’t need to pay personal income taxes when buying or selling bitcoin, and Indira Kempis, a Mexico senator representing the state of Nuevo León, who called on the country’s president to adopt bitcoin as legal tender immediately and proposed new monetary legislation, though no additional details were provided.