El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced on Twitter at 6:28 a.m. GMT +1 that the country would begin purchasing one bitcoin per day.
We are buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) November 17, 2022
This comes after the country’s vice president stated that China has proposed purchasing the country’s $21 billion in foreign debt as part of a free trade agreement.
The country’s leader has frequently announced bitcoin buying sprees, but it is unclear how many coins the government actually owns and where they are kept.
The Central American country is in the grip of a severe economic crisis. Bukele predicted that bitcoin would reach $100,000 by the start of the year and promised that his government would issue bitcoin bonds to pay off its debt. But despite the president’s lofty expectations, the price of bitcoin is still hovering around $16,000.
According to the most accurate observer of the president’s obscure trading, he has spent more than $107 million on 2,381 bitcoins. This investment is now worth slightly more than $40 million.
The crash of FTX has caused significant volatility in the cryptocurrency market, and there have previously been allegations that the Salvadoran government may be exposed to FTX.
However, a tweet from the CEO of Binance, who asserted to have communicated with the president of El Salvador, debunked these rumours. According to CZ’s tweet, the president claimed that the country had no bitcoin in FTX and had never had any business dealing with the exchange.
Man, the amount of misinformation is insane.
I exchanged messages with President Nayib a few moments ago. He said “we don’t have any Bitcoin in FTX and we never had any business with them. Thank God!” https://t.co/CrM5wd24Ha
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 10, 2022
In September 2021, El Salvador became the first to accept bitcoin as legal tender. Bukele put bitcoin ATMs in every public space, gave each citizen $30 in bitcoin, and urged businesses to accept it as payment. Bitcoin has lost nearly 60% of its value and is no longer widely used in the country.
The country is at the top of the list of developing countries highly susceptible to debt default. El Salvador’s debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to reach 87% this year, raising concerns that the country will be unable to repay its debts.
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