El Salvador on June 9 has become the first country to adopt the world’s largest cryptocurrency bitcoin as legal tender in the country.
The Central American Congress voted a bill by a supermajority in favor of the bitcoin law, receiving 62 out of 84 of the legislature’s vote. Its tender will go into law in 90 days.
The law reads - “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.”
The move came after El Salvado’s President Nayib Bukele, said that he would send a bill to Congress regarding the same. He believes that this move would generate jobs in the short term and provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy.
He added “The bill could transform where 70 percent of the population does not have a bank account and works in the informal economy.”
“According to the law, the exchange rate with the U.S dollar will be freely established by the market. The government will guarantee the convertibility to the exact value in dollars at the moment of each transaction,” Bukele said.
The country’s current official currency is the U.S. dollar.
The law also states that in order to population have the access to bitcoin transactions, the state will promote the necessary training and mechanisms.
“Thanks to the use of Bitcoin, the amount received by more than a million low-income families’ increases by several billion dollars every year. This improves life and the future of millions of people,” he added.
Bitcoin’s current price is $32,987.02 and its dominance is 41.34 percent, an increase of 0.39 percent over the day. The rise has been because of the number of factors like rising interest from institutional investors and companies such as Tesla and Square buying bitcoin.
