President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador’s bill proposing to make Bitcoin a legal tender within its territory was successfully passed by a supermajority of the nation’s Congress members with the president expected to sign it off as law within today.
Nayib in an earlier Twitter Space conversation today with over 22,000 listeners said “it goes into effect immediately” but however mentioned that the government will allow a 90 days grease period for the necessary infrastructure to be put in place for the smooth operation of the Bitcoin law. President Nayib Bukele tweeted that
“The #BitcoinLaw has been approved by a supermajority in the Salvadoran Congress.
62 out of 84 votes! History! #Btc”
By law, merchants and businesses in El Salvador will be mandated to accept bitcoin just like they accept the US Dollar.
“They have to take it by law,[…] If you go to Mexico they have to take your pesos. In the case of El Salvador, Bitcoin is going to be legal tender just as the US Dollar.”
President Nayib Bukele also hinted in the Twitter Space conversation that he expects to meet with the officials of the International Monetary fund (IMF) on Thursday. When some participants within the Twitter Space conversation asked if El Salvador will add bitcoin as part of his nation’s reserves, he said:
“I don’t know, this is evolving very fast. We’re not ruling out having Bitcoin in our reserves in the near future.”
With the Bitcoin Bill passed into law, El Salvador will grant permanent residency to anyone who invests 3 BTC in its country.
The bill was submitted and was passed all within 24 hours signalling the Central American nation’s readiness to embrace the blowing bitcoin movement. Per the content of the Bill,
“The purpose of this law is to regulate Bitcoin as unrestricted legal tender with liberating power, unlimited in any transaction, and to any title that public or private natural or legal persons require carrying out.” It also contained subjects like zero capital gains tax for holders of BTC.
The bill also makes provision for anyone who accepts BTC to easily convert it to dollars as El Salvador will provide the necessary to aid this seamless conversion between these currencies.
President Nayib Bukele’s latest move is sparking off a domino of interest in the king crypto among some of his South American counterparts. Just like Bukele changed his Twitter profile picture donning laser eyes, a move which many have now ascribed to open support for Bitcoin, Paraguayan congressman, Carlitos Rejala on June 7th posted laser eyes and promised a Bitcoin announcement later in the week. The next would be Eduardo Murat Hinojosa, a Mexican senator who said he has plans of
“promoting and proposing a legal framework for crypto coins in Mexico’s lower house.”
El Salvador will be creating a Bitcoin wallet which however is not compulsory for merchants on inhabitants of El Salvador to use. The Central American nation through President Nayib Bukele however hinted his country will hold $150 million equivalent of Bitcoin in a trust fund in its development bank to assume the risks of merchants.