Bitcoin Hasn’t Had the Widespread Adoption We Hoped for: El Salvador President

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Sujha Sundararajan

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Sujha Sundararajan

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Last updated:

August 30, 2024 01:50 EDT

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El Salvador’s pro-crypto president Nayib Bukele said that despite Bitcoin’s strong presence in the Central American nation’s economic growth, adoption hasn’t met the expectations.

Bukele, latest to feature on TIME magazine cover, noted that the country’s Bitcoin strategy is generally “net positive.” However, Bitcoin adoption rate has fallen short.

He said that the digital asset has played a major role in the lives of many Salvadorans in day-to-day payments. The country has never forced anyone to adopt it, rather, offered it as an option, the president noted.

“It hasn’t had the adoption we expected,” he added. “I expected more adoption, definitely, but we always prided ourselves on being a free country, free in every way.”

Bukele also advocated people to use Bitcoin now, as they “will probably have gains in the future.”

Further, he stressed that given the positive impacts of Bitcoin on the nation, from branding to tourism, a slight lag in adoption “hasn’t resulted in anything negative.”

“I feel that it could have worked better, and there is still time to make some improvements, but it hasn’t resulted in anything negative. On the contrary, it gave us branding, it brought us investments, it brought us tourism.”

Bukele sees “lot of future” in Bitcoin. The country’s Bitcoin adoption dates back to 2021 and is one of the early adopters. The nation made Bitcoin as a legal tender in September 2021, and was the first country to do so.

Besides, the nation’s Bitcoin reserves now stands at 5.858K BTC, valued at $345.61 million per Arkham data. Additionally, it has also been actively purchasing 1 BTC per day until Bitcoin “becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies.” As a result, El Salvador became one of the world’s richest countries due to its large Bitcoin stash.

“Right now, you have the largest funds in the world, literally the largest funds in the world,” Bukele told TIME.

Bitcoin’s Attention vs Adoption in El Salvador

Bukule sees that the digital asset has gained a lot of positive attention in the nation, despite some criticisms. Further, El Salvador, being the “first mover” in the aspect of Bitcoin adoption, “gives us a small advantage, as far as it goes,” he noted.

“I feel that it could have been much better. I wouldn’t consider it a resounding success.”

However, the president still believes that the positive outcomes have outweighed the negatives.