Bitcoin made Legal Tender in El Salvador, becomes First Nation to Adopt Cryptocurrency

The price of Bitcoin surged this week, after the Central American nation El Salvador passed a law to adopt bitcoin as legal tender on Wednesday.

The cryptocurrency soared 7% and exceeded $37,000, from a previous low price of about $31,000. According to CoinDesk data, bitcoin last changed hands at $37,059.78 at 9:14 a.m. GMT +8 on Saturday, June 12.

On Wednesday June 9, lawmakers in El Salvador passed a law which made bitcoin legal tender in the country. This makes El Salvador the first country in the world to formally adopt bitcoin as legal tender. This means, among other things, tax contributions can now be paid with the virtual currency and prices can now be shown in bitcoin. Of course, the use of bitcoin will be optional.

Bitcoin enthusiasts, who believe that the digital currency is a viable alternative to fiat currencies, have highly approved of El Salvador’s move of making it legal tender.

El Salvador has partnered with digital wallet company Strike to build the nation’s modern financial infrastructure with the use of bitcoin technology.

Other cryptocurrencies got a jump as well as both ether and XRP were trading higher.

Bitcoin is still considerably way off of its record high price of $64,829.14 that was hit back in April.

Known for its wild price swings, bitcoin is something that critics suggest as a not suitable effective currency. El Salvador will be watched closely from now on by those interested in bitcoin, in order to see how it might work as a payments mechanism on a nation-wide basis.

Image: PYMNTS.com

4 thoughts on “Bitcoin made Legal Tender in El Salvador, becomes First Nation to Adopt Cryptocurrency”

  1. Thats a good news. This is a great step towards the freedom. It’s good to see a country adopting a crypto as a legal tender.

    Reply
  2. I don’t know if that’s a good news. The government is trying to control an industry that was untraceable to it before. I don’t know if I like this idea.

    Reply
  3. I feel so glad to come across this informative and useful stuff. After reading such blogs help in gaining more knowledge about cryptocurrency.

    Reply
  4. We are getting closer and closer to freedom. But we have to be careful as the state may want to sell a pig in a poke and thereby monopolize yet another free market

    Reply

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