It seems that the obscene bitcoin from El Salvador is subject to a significant reduction as companies are no longer binding on the acceptance of the encrypted currency.
As part of a loan of $ 1.4 billion agreed with the International Monetary Fund in December, the government’s participation with the Chivo digital portfolio will be “gradually not binding”. At the end of January, with a vote of 55-2, the Legislative Association approved El Salvador amendments to Bitcoin Law, which led to the elimination of the word “currency”, but its preservation is a legal tender. The changes will be in effect on May 1, 90 days after the legislation appeared in the official newspaper.
“Bitcoin no longer has the power of legal giving,” economist Rafael Limus told AFP. “This should have always been this way, but the government tried to force it to exist, and it did not succeed.”
Users are now free to accept Bitcoin or not, but it cannot be used to pay taxes or state bills. President Nayb Bokil admitted that bringing Bitcoin as an official currency alongside the US dollar in September 2021-the first such step in the world-was his “most popular” government, along with strict security measures against Gang.
El Salvador still has 688 bitcoin in reserves, at a value of $ 574 million, of which $ 287 million is a profit.
On February 13, the CEO of Bukele and Microstrategy Michael Celor discussed how bitcoin’s adoption around the world could be accelerated, while thinking about the National Bitcoin Office in El Salvador to establish a contract in each family. The goal was to enhance the general awareness of how Bitcoin work in daily settings.
“The President of the PKK continues to buy Bitcoin, we have the Bitcoin office, we have Bitcoin Law, and Bitcoin can be used in El Salvador,” the ambassador of El Salvador in the United States, Melina Mayerga, confirmed at the Bitcoin conference. “But,” it was not an easy way. “A survey published by the Jesuit University in Central America in January revealed that 92 % of Salvadorians did not use bitcoin in 2024. Of the 8 % of those who said they did so, the average was only 14 times a year. Family transfers across digital portfolios reached $ 7.22 million in December 2024, less than 1 % of the total transmission.
