El Salvador, which has become the first country in the world to legalize bitcoin as legal tender, will resume buying one coin per day on November 18 after a months-long pause caused by a meltdown of the cryptocurrency market, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2022) El Salvador, which has become the first country in the world to legalize bitcoin as legal tender, will resume buying one coin per day on November 18 after a months-long pause caused by a meltdown of the cryptocurrency market, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on Thursday.
"We are buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow," Bukele wrote on Twitter.
The Salvadoran president announced his intention to introduce legislation on adopting the crypto asset as legal Currency on June 5, 2021. Despite criticism from the IMF and resistance from citizens, who feared bitcoin's volatility, on June 9, 2021, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador passed the Bitcoin Law. The legislation went into effect on September 7, 2021.
To date, the country has purchased 2,381 bitcoins, with the last 80 bought in late June 2022, according to media reports. The subsequent pause in purchases was caused by the crisis around FTX, one of the world's biggest crypto exchanges. In November, FTX declared bankruptcy amid allegations of involvement in a money-laundering scheme with Ukraine and the US Democratic Party.
The cryptocurrency has since shed 20% of its value, dropping from $20,560 last week. The crypto market capitalization fell from over $1 trillion to about $800 billion. On Monday, the price of the bitcoin further decreased by 5% to $15,990.
