El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said the nation has adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, a move he believes will create jobs and foster financial inclusion.
Bukele, the youngest president of Latin America known for breaking the norms, said on Twitter that lawmakers passed the law with a “super majority”.
The 39-year-old leader has previously said that Bitcoin could boost the economy, help counter El Salvador’s low bank penetration rate, and enable faster transfers for $ 6 billion a year in transfers. The move to make the virtual coin legal tender is rare good news for the largest cryptocurrency that is struggling to recover from a loss in May.
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El Salvador Central Bank President Douglas Rodriguez said in an interview with state television on Tuesday that Bitcoin is already in use in the country and “it’s not something people should be scared of,” while adding that it is the US – Will not replace dollars.
Bitcoin has roughly halved from a record high of nearly $ 65,000 in mid-April, partly hurt by billionaire Elon Musk’s criticism of the amount of energy used by the servers that underpin it.
Tighter regulatory scrutiny in countries like China has also dampened sentiment, and the notion that more mainstream investors will warm to it has suffered a blow. But Bitcoin believers say these are temporary setbacks and that the role of virtual currency will increase.
Bitcoin climbed 2.5% to around $ 34,500 at 8:05 a.m. in London on Wednesday, reversing previous losses. The broader Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index rose about 3%.
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