Bitcoin in El Salvador – One Year Later

It has been one year since Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador. Crypto adoption has not been without issues in El Salvador, but it’s difficult to weed through the different stories about Bitcoin because there are so many competing interests promoting or FUDing Bitcoin. This article will filter through the nonsense and describe how Bitcoin in El Salvador has panned out one year after it became legal tender. Why El Salvador Made Bitcoin Legal Tender El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender ostensibly for a few reasons. The government cited the following reasons: A significant portion of El Salvadorans receive remittances from the United States. Remittances from the US actually make up 20% of El Salvador’s GDP. Fees for wiring money to El Salvador are not cheap. Bitcoin transactions are cheap, so the El Salvador government made Bitcoin legal tender to reduce the fees citizens must pay for remittances. Approximately 70% of El Salvadorans do not have bank accounts. Transacting in Bitcoin can act as a sort of bank account. El Salvador uses the United States Dollar, which is suffering from fairly bad inflation at the moment. El Salvador moved to Bitcoin to hedge itself against inflation of the US Dollar. The three reasons listed above are all the official reasons that El Salvador gave for making Bitcoin legal tender. There are likely other reasons for El Salvador to make Bitcoin legal tender that they will not say publicly, thoug...