Bitcoin has experienced a price decline of nearly eight percent over the past week, and El Salvador was quick to take notice. The country’s president Nayib Bukele recently announced that the nation has bought the dip and added approximately 100 new units of bitcoin to its balance sheet.
El Salvador Buys More BTC
El Salvador has become a big bitcoin haven as of late. Recently, the nation announced plans to launch an entire city based on BTC. The area will feature malls, restaurants, and plenty of other attractions, and the country is currently working on a plan that will allegedly bring in foreign investors. In addition, the entire city will run on bitcoin.
El Salvador has also announced plans to build a pet hospital and several new schools with some of its bitcoin profits from the past few months. Regarding the recent price dip, Bukele said on Twitter:
El Salvador just bought the dip.
Clearly, the country is working to make as much money as it can and establish itself not just as a bitcoin center, but as a finance center. The nation recently stated that it was planning to sell approximately $1 billion in tokenized ten-year dollar-denominated bonds. It’s clear that the nation doesn’t want to be financially reliant on any other currency anymore, much less USD, and bitcoin – along with several other modern financial tools – are alleged to bring the freedom it’s looking for.
Last September saw the country becoming the first official nation to declare BTC legal tender. This meant businesses had to accept BTC as a form of payment and customers had the option of paying with it for goods and services. Up to that point, El Salvador had largely relied on USD to get the job done.
The country’s regulators were advised against taking such action. The World Bank, for example, said that BTC was too volatile to be taken seriously, and thus the country was making a mistake by implementing such a shaky financial plan. The World Bank refused to offer any assistance when it came to El Salvador pushing forth its bitcoin agenda, but this didn’t stop the nation’s leaders from sticking to their guns.
Remittance Payments Could Be Easier
The primary goal of bitcoin in El Salvador – according to Bukele – is to alleviate the process of sending remittance payments. Many residents of El Salvador are working abroad in nations like the U.S. They are looking to send their money home to their families so they can survive and afford what they need. The problem is that up to this point, this process has largely been dependent on USD, and several of these workers have lost tons of money to fees.
Bitcoin is slated to make these fees lower so workers can send more of their money home to family members.
