el salvador

Miss Universe contestant represents El Salvador with Bitcoin-inspired costume

“You don’t need a sash to walk around dressed as cash,” said the Miss Universe 2022 announcer as Alejandra Guajardo showed off her currency-themed costume.

Actress and model Alejandra Guajardo represented El Salvador in the preliminary competition of the Miss Universe 2022 pageant by wearing a costume featuring Bitcoin (BTC) during her walk across the stage.

In a Jan. 12 post on her Instagram account tagging Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Guajardo shows herself walking gracefully with a giant colón — one of the country’s accepted currencies until 2001 — strapped to her back adorned with cocoa beans. In her right hand, the pageant contestant carries a staff topped with a large physical Bitcoin.

“This look represents El Salvador’s history of currency,” said the Miss Universe announcer. “For a long time, cocoa was used, and then the colón, until it was replaced by the U.S. dollar. In 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to use Bitcoin as legal tender. You don’t need a sash to walk around dressed as cash.”

Alejandra Guajardo, wearing a Bitcoin costume at Miss Universe 2022 in New Orleans. Source: Instagram

Plastic artist Francisco Guerrero designed the currency suit, with BTC at the front, possibly representing the future of currency in El Salvador. It’s unclear whether the government or Bukele may have had a role in promoting the cryptocurrency to a global audience. Bukele used his Twitter account to report several BTC buys following El Salvador’s adoption of the crypto asset as legal tender in September 2021.

Cast your vote now!

As part of the pageant format, 16 semifinalists will advance following the preliminary competition. There are contestants representing 84 countries in the 2022 event. 

Related: Wear-to-earn NFTs target the billion-dollar fashion industry

Guajardo’s walk across the New Orleans stage followed El Salvador’s legislature approving a bill aimed at providing a framework for Bitcoin-backed bonds. Pro-crypto lawmakers in the country proposed using such bonds to pay down sovereign debt and fund the construction of a volcano-powered Bitcoin City.

Cointelegraph reached out to Francisco Guerrero but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin strategy evolved with the bear market in 2022

After making Bitcoin legal tender in the country, El Salvador has faced a tough year of critics and the nonstop sinking of Bitcoin pricing.

Cryptocurrency adoption has been on the rise in El Salvador in recent years, with the country becoming the first in the world to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender. This landmark decision has attracted the attention of the global cryptocurrency community and has sparked discussions on the potential benefits and challenges of widespread adoption.

El Salvador’s controversial move with its cryptocurrency adoption would not have been possible if it was not due to President Nayib Bukele, who garnered international attention after announcing the Bitcoin adoption plan and passed it into law. The legislation required all businesses within the country to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for goods and services. As a legal tender, Bitcoin now has the same status as traditional fiat currencies, which worries other regulators, economic experts and many everyday Salvadorans.

The country’s adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender has made it easier for Salvadorans living abroad to send money back to their families in the country through remittances. Chivo Wallet, the official wallet of the Salvadoran government, claimed to have onboarded 2.2 million Salvadorans a month after declaring Bitcoin as a legal tender.

This could potentially increase financial inclusion for these individuals, who previously relied on cash transactions or informal financial services. Every user who successfully downloaded the app immediately received $30 in Bitcoin. However, this massive adoption was not as smooth as hoped, as it was faced with numerous roadblocks, including missing funds, system issues and disinterest from everyday citizens.

Click “Collect” below the illustration at the top of the page or follow this link.

Bukele also proposed the creation of a low-tax Bitcoin city at the base of the Conchagua volcano, which would power the city’s infrastructure and crypto mining operations. The project would be funded through the sale of $1 billion worth of bonds known as Bitcoin bonds or volcano bonds, which have an annual interest rate of 6.5% and are intended to be in effect for 10 years.

The adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador has generated a lot of interest and has the potential to pave the way for the wider adoption of cryptocurrency in other countries, but it remains to be seen how this experiment will play out.

What worked and what didn’t?

El Salvador’s decision to make Bitcoin legal tender has caused concern among its citizens due to the cryptocurrency’s volatile nature and the uncertain success of the plan. While some parts of the implementation of Bitcoin as a legal tender went according to plan, many didn’t, which resulted in some unintended consequences.

El Salvador’s credit rating and ties with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have suffered as a result of Bitcoin adoption. Local borrowers have been forced to charge higher interest rates as investors have become less willing to lend to the nation. Moreover, due to the significant risks to financial and market integrity, financial stability and consumer protection, the IMF advised El Salvador to revoke Bitcoin’s legal lender status due to its volatility as well as its usage in fraud and other criminal activities.

Recent: Crypto companies aim to build trust within future products and services

The World Bank has also raised worries about the negative environmental effects of cryptocurrencies that El Salvador’s Bitcoin strategy has brought to light.

The majority of Salvadorans still lack knowledge about Bitcoin. Despite promises of economic freedom and servicing the unbanked, blockchain tech can be clunky from a user experience perspective, and many find it easier to continue to transact in U.S. dollars.

Furthermore, El Salvador is a poor country with one of the lowest rates of internet use in the Americas. There are many vendors, street hawkers and farmers who are not equipped to handle cryptocurrency transactions. Thus, the usage of Bitcoin for everyday transactions is low, despite the government’s big push.

However, the decision to open up the economy to Bitcoin has managed to attract foreign investment to the country. Carlos G. Alfaro, technical sales manager at blockchain software firm Koibanx, told Cointelegraph:

“I have managed to meet several foreign investors who have come because of the Bitcoin Law but are not only investing in the blockchain industry — they are also investing in different areas such as hotels, real estate, and franchise companies.”

Before the Bitcoin Law, a large portion of Salvadorans lacked a mechanism to retain their money digitally and conduct transactions with one another. Hence, the project introduced many residents to the idea of savings and investments.

And while participation and use of Bitcoin may remain relatively low among the populace, Alfaro stated that the $30 Bitcoin reward from the Chivo Wallet has served as a catalyst to get citizens more interested in savings and investments, adding:

“I think that, little by little, the average citizen is finding how to use it, from having a small bank account, sending money between countries both personally and with companies, being able to save a little and learning how investments work.”

The country’s investment strategy has also become more moderate. The country has bought Bitcoin 11 times at different amounts and purchase prices based on tweets posted by Bukele himself. The latest such purchase was 80 BTC for $1.5 million on June 30, 2022, but now El Salvador is buying 1 Bitcoin per day using a dollar cost averaging strategy to minimize the impact of Bitcoin’s volatility on the country’s economy.

Expectations for 2023 and beyond

Demand for Bitcoin in El Salvador is still present, and with the announced plans to build a Bitcoin city, the country hopes to continue to attract BTC investors in the years to come.

In 2023, El Salvador is expected to expand its administrative capacities for dealing with cryptocurrency use in its economy, including addressing any possible criminal activities. Guillermo Contreras, CEO of DitoBanx, told Cointelegraph:

“In this sense, there has been a lot of openness, cooperation and communication between the different government institutions and the companies that are operating under this heading, and now precisely this issue is being further consolidated with the opening of the National Bitcoin Office that will function as a central entity to deal with all issues related to it.”

The new Digital Assets Issuance Law, which will be implemented in 2023, permits the issuing of El Salvador’s Bitcoin bonds to fund the infrastructure of the Bitcoin city and buy more Bitcoin. This law will also permit the development of blockchain-based business models in a controlled setting.

Recent: Redeeming physical NFTs: Easier said than done?

El Salvador continues to take concrete steps so that Bitcoin will be incorporated into financial literacy programs across the country. In 2023, the country’s Ministry of Education is expected to address educational concerns at a mass level with a training module in financial education that incorporates updated content such as cryptocurrencies and electronic wallets.

Contreras concluded: “The implementation of Bitcoin and digital wallets allowed more than four million people to safeguard their money, receive money from remittances and other sources safely and instantly. At the beginning, of course, there was a feeling of fear of the unknown, but fortunately, El Salvador had already experienced something similar when we adopted the U.S. dollar as legal tender instead of the Salvadoran colones. It is a process that took a bit of time, but finally users were able to confirm that it was real money just like any other currency, and although there are still some challenges to overcome, the path is well marked and there is a good perspective.”

Here’s how Bitcoin promotes global financial inclusion, according to Prince Philip of Serbia

Prince Philip of Serbia outlines key ways in which Bitcoin promotes global financial inclusion and its importance in conflict-affected nations.

The fundamental aspects of Bitcoin (BTC) continue to power global financial inclusion, financial privacy and autonomy in conflict-affected nations despite difficult macroeconomic and cryptocurrency market conditions over the past year.

These are the key takeaways of an in-depth interview with Prince Philip of Serbia and Yugoslavia conducted by Cointelegraph Brasil’s Cassio Gusson as 2023 gets underway.

Prince Philip Karađorđević shared his thoughts on the sector as he joined Jan3 as its chief strategy officer. The Bitcoin technology company seeks to drive the adoption of the preeminent cryptocurrency and was founded by Bitcoin proponent Samson Mow in 2022.

In April 2022, Jan3 announced a partnership to help develop El Salvador’s Bitcoin City and has since opened up an office in the BTC-friendly nation, according to Prince Philip. The company also intends to provide guidance and services to other nations looking to adopt Bitcoin in some capacity.

Prince Philip told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin remains important as the preeminent cryptocurrency, with its technological specifications allowing for the emergence of a fairer monetary system and individual sovereignty of wealth:

“Bitcoin, specifically, has the potential to promote financial inclusion because of its decentralized nature, which makes it resistant to censorship and manipulation.”

This is particularly important for individuals or communities without access to financial institutions or those residing in countries with unstable or corrupt governments and institutions.

Prince Philip also highlighted Bitcoin’s ability to “bank the unbanked,” given its low barrier to entry. Any person with a smartphone can download a Bitcoin wallet and gain access to “basic banking services,” which has become extremely relevant in emerging economies:

“Issuing a checking account with a minimum balance, a checkbook, a debit card, is simply too expensive for low-income consumers in the developing world, and for the banks themselves.”

Furthermore, Prince Philip highlighted that Bitcoin has no branches, correspondent banking relationships nor employees. Stablecoins are becoming equally useful in developing nations where people want to save in the U.S. dollar:

“Bitcoin and stablecoins have the potential to provide much-needed financial inclusion to people in countries with limited or no access to traditional banking services.”

Both options provide a secure, cost-effective means to send and receive payments, even in remote areas with limited infrastructure. The confines and regulations of traditional banking are also removed, giving people access to some sort of financial facility where traditional services are not accessible.

Conflict-affected nations are also prime candidates for Bitcoin adoption, according to Prince Philip. Bitcoin facilitates cross-border transactions, offers financial privacy and autonomy, and promotes economic development:

“This can be particularly useful in countries with authoritarian governments or a history of conflict, where individuals may be concerned about revealing their financial information or being subject to censorship or seizure of assets.”

El Salvador has established itself as the banner carrier for sovereign Bitcoin adoption after becoming the first country to recognize BTC as legal tender in June 2021. While there are some teething problems remaining — as Cointelegraph journalist Joe Hall outlined after a recent visit to the nation — El Salvador is a living example of what nation-led Bitcoin adoption looks like.

Prince Philip believes that more countries should allocate a portion of their national treasury to Bitcoin, highlighting the established moniker of digital gold. There are tangible results being realized in the country as well, which Prince Philip describes as an example for other nations to follow:

“Already we’re starting to see the economic benefits of the Bitcoin policies, including accelerated GDP growth, tourism, new businesses being established and many other intangible markers.”

While Bitcoin is positioned as a driver of financial freedom, Prince Philip gave a cautionary comment on the development of central bank digital currencies. He cited caveats and limitations to nation-controlled CBDCs, which could be used to place restrictions or outright blocks on people’s money.

Crypto makes history in 2022: Five instances of governments embracing digital assets

Even amid the market breakdown and repetitive public attacks on the industry, some of the officials found the courage to embrace the innovation.

The year 2022 wasn’t the best one in terms of crypto reputation among regulators and policymakers. However, even amid the market breakdown and repetitive public attacks on the industry, some of the officials found the courage to embrace the innovation. Some of the names are not new, while others showed progress significant enough to include them in this listicle. The United Arab Emirates and El Salvador continued to push their crypto agenda and the United Kingdom showed great effort to lay the regulatory foundation, while Brazil and the Central African Republic legally recognized the cryptocurrencies. 

Brazil

2021 might have been a year of mass adoption in Brazil, but it was 2022 when the country finally got its own regulatory framework. Before leaving his office, Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, signed a bill legalizing the use of crypto as a payment method within the country. The bill doesn’t make cryptocurrencies legal tender, as in El Salvador, but it still introduces the legal definition of digital currencies and establishes a licensing regime for virtual asset service providers.

The bill came in about time. The number of companies holding cryptocurrency in Brazil has reached new record highs — the country’s taxation authority recorded 12,053 unique organizations declaring crypto on their balance sheets in August 2022.

Click “Collect” below the illustration at the top of the page or follow this link.

In May, Brazilian Stock Exchange confirmed its intention to launch the first official product aimed at the cryptocurrency market — Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading. In contrast to the United States, currently, institutional and retail investors trade 11 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to cryptocurrencies on Brazilian Exchange.

The United Kingdom

Great Britain surely didn’t have an easy year. In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II passed away after serving the nation for 70 years. Two Prime ministers — Boris Johnson and Liz Truss — resigned. But when it comes to crypto, the turbulent government never stopped working on regulation. And even if the fruits of this work could be more impressive, the United Kingdom still makes an important case for a national regulatory framework.

The Financial Services and Markets Bill, introduced in July, reasserted the U.K.’s intention to become a global cryptocurrency hub. It broadened regulations of stablecoins and coined a new term — Digital Settlement Assets (DSA). The bill will authorize the Treasury to regulate DSAs, including payments, service providers and insolvency arrangements. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, introduced in May, proposed “creating powers to more quickly and easily seize and recover crypto assets” to mitigate risks for individuals targeted by ransomware attacks.

Related: Indonesia’s crypto industry in 2021: A kaleidoscope

This year, the British Web3 community celebrated an important legal precedent. The High Court of Justice in London, the closest analog to the United States Supreme Court, has ruled that nonfungible tokens (NFT) represent “private property.”

In a time when everyone is poking on unhosted wallets, Treasury scaled back its requirements for gathering data from both the senders and recipients of crypto sent to unhosted wallets unless the transaction poses “an elevated risk of illicit finance.” And, by the end of the year, it made a great present to all the investors by qualifying the transactions of “designated crypto assets” for the Investment Manager Exemption.

El Salvador

The nation of El Salvador, whose main breakthrough occurred in 2021, deserves to be included in this listicle, at least for its persistence. Once revealing the plan to issue “Bitcoin bonds,” the government of Nayib Bukele has been trying to execute it ever since. The first delay came in March, then repeated in September. In November, economy minister Maria Luisa Hayem Brevé introduced a bill confirming the government’s plan to raise $1 billion and invest them into the construction of a “Bitcoin city.” However, no news about the success of the bill has occurred since.

Still, the country remains a crucial laboratory for Bitcoin adoption. According to Salvadoran Tourism Minister Morena Valdez, the tourism industry in El Salvador has surged more than 30% since the adoption of the Bitcoin law in September 2021. At the beginning of 2022, a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) showed that 20% of businesses have started accepting BTC as a payment method.

In May, El Salvador welcomed 44 central bankers from developing countries around the world to tackle financial inclusion and discuss Bitcoin at a three-day conference. The event was visited by central bank delegates from Ghana to Burundi, Jordan to the Maldives and Pakistan to Costa Rica.

The Central African Republic

In April, the 5-million-populated Central African Republic (CAR) became the first nation on the continent to legalize the use of cryptocurrencies in the financial markets. The cryptocurrency bill, unanimously approved by lawmakers, allowed traders and businesses to make crypto payments and also make way for tax payments in crypto through authorized entities. In July, the local central bank digital currency (CBDC), Sango Coin, was launched to raise nearly $1 billion over the next year. So far, however, only $1.66 million worth of the coin has been sold.

The country had also announced a plan to allow foreign investors to buy citizenship for $60,000 worth of Sango Coins. However, this initiative was blocked as unconstitutional by the CAR’s top court.

Mamadou Moustapha Ly explains Sango Coin to Cointelegraph’s Joseph Hall

Adoption drew pushback from the Bank of Central African States (BEAC), which warned about the “substantial negative impact” that the legislation will have on the monetary union of Central Africa.

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates took a strategic approach to crypto and moved steadily to create a regulatory environment and attract global investors. Perhaps that’s why the country makes it to the Cointelegraph listicle for the second time in a row.

In March, Dubai established a legal framework for crypto aimed at protecting investors and “designing much-warranted international standards” for industry governance. A newly formed Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) got enforcement powers in the Emirate’s special development and free zones with the exception of the Dubai International Financial Centre. The now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX was among the first to obtain the same license.

Another emirate, Abu Dhabi, came up with draft recommendations for NFT trading. They marked NFTs as intellectual property rather than “specified investments or financial instruments” and allowed multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) and Virtual Asset Custodians (VAC) to operate NFT marketplaces.

In July, Dubai launched the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, which aimed to turn the Emirate into one of the world’s top 10 metaverse economies. It includes research and development (R&D) collaborations to enhance the metaverse’s economic contributions, utilizing accelerators and incubators to attract companies and projects from abroad, and providing support in metaverse education aimed at developers, content creators and users.

The country even opened its first city in Metaverse. Dubbed Sharjahverse, it was described as a “photorealistic, physics-accurate” metaverse that encompasses the emirate’s 1,000 square-mile surface area. The virtual city will support the local tourism industry and potentially create new metaverse jobs.

All in all, 2022 wasn’t so bad in terms of friendly regulation. And the next year is going to be even more interesting, with the race to the first comprehensive crypto framework in the U.S. and potential liberalization in Hong Kong and South Korea.

Australia overtakes El Salvador to become 4th largest crypto ATM hub

El Salvador’s position as the fourth-largest crypto ATM hub was short-lived as Australia stepped up its game over the following months.

El Salvador, the first country to legalize Bitcoin (BTC), has been pushed down yet another spot in total crypto ATM installations as Australia records 216 ATMs stepping into the year 2023.

As part of El Salvador’s drive to establish Bitcoin as a legal tender, President Nayib Bukele decided to install over 200 crypto ATMs across the country. While this move made El Salvador the third-largest crypto ATM hub at the time after the United States and Canada in September 2021, Spain and Australia overtook the Central American country’s ATM count in 2022.

On October 2022, Cointelegraph reported that Spain became the third-largest crypto ATM hub after installing 215 crypto ATMs. However, Spain continued its installation drive and is home to 226 crypto ATMs at the time of writing. El Salvador’s position as the fourth-largest crypto ATM hub was short-lived as Australia stepped up its game over the following months.

In the last three months of 2022, Australia deployed 99 crypto ATMs, confirms data from CoinATMRadar. As of Jan. 1, 2023, Australia recorded 219 active crypto ATMs, overshadowing El Salvador by 7 ATMs at the time of writing.

Australia represents 0.6% of global crypto ATM installations and, at this rate, is well-positioned to take over Asia’s crypto ATM numbers, which stand at 312 ATMs. The total number of crypto ATMs worldwide is 38,602, out of which 6,071 ATMs were installed in 2022 alone.

Related: Florida best-prepared US state for widespread crypto adoption: Research

Nigeria’s drive to impose the adoption of an in-house central bank digital currency (CBDC) — eNaira — forced the government to limit ATM cash withdrawals to $225 (100,000 nairas) a week.

“Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions,” noted Haruna Mustafa, the director of banking supervision, while announcing the drive.

Bitcoin could reach $1M in 5 years due to fiat currencies’ collapse, says Samson Mow

The future collapse of fiat currencies could propel Bitcoin to $1 million in the next five to 10 years, according to Jan3 CEO and Bitcoin proponent Samson Mow.

Despite the ongoing bear market, Jan3 CEO and Bitcoin (BTC) proponent Samson Mow believes that the leading cryptocurrency could reach the $1-million-price benchmark in the next five to 10 years. The collapse of major fiat currencies will be a major catalyst, which he said can “happen very rapidly” and “are not anticipated.”

”It just sort of happens overnight, and then you are shoveling cash into a wheelbarrow,” he said in a recent interview with Cointelegraph.

Mow made his prediction while commenting on the current state of Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador, about a year after it was adopted as a legal tender. Mow said he sees El Salvador’s move as an overall success, despite the relatively low usage rate and uneven availability of Bitcoin payment infrastructure in the country.

“You’re basically recreating traditional banking infrastructure in the country. So, it’s bound to take some time, and it’s bound to have uneven deployment,” he said. 

According to Mow, Bitcoin’s high volatility is among the reasons why El Salvador’s citizens still rely on cash to get by in their everyday lives instead the cryptocurrency. Mow sees it as a temporary problem, as volatility is bound to decrease as Bitcoin approaches the $1 million benchmark. 

Even now, Mow believes that El Salvador can play a role in inspiring other countries to follow its example. In particular, he sees El Salvador’s vibrant, grassroots local Bitcoin community as playing an important role in driving adoption.

A mix of top-down and bottom-up initiatives is needed to balance each other out in any country that wants to successfully adopt Bitcoin.

To learn more about the current state of Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador, check out the full interview on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel, and don’t forget to subscribe!

Bukele’s government introduced a bill to launch the ‘Bitcoin bonds’

A new bill confirms the government’s plan to raise $1 billion and invest them into the construction of a “Bitcoin city.”

Amid the crypto market downturn, El Salvador finally made a decisive step to the realization of its ambitious “Bitcoin bonds” project. The Minister of the Economy, Maria Luisa Hayem Brevé, introduced a bill confirming the government’s plan to raise $1 billion and invest them into the construction of a “Bitcoin city.”

A 33-page digital securities bill, dated Nov. 17, urges lawmakers to create a legal framework using the digital assets in public issuances by El Salvador. They should also consider all the requirements for this procedure and the obligations of issuers and asset providers.

The “volcano bonds” or “Bitcoin bonds” were introduced by the government of Nayib Bukele back in 2021. The initial plan proposed issuing roughly $1 billion of those bonds and allocating the raised funds to the construction of a “Bitcoin city” at the base of the Colchagua volcano. Supposedly, the hydrothermal energy of the volcano would make the city a perfect crypto-mining facility. Half of the raised funds would still be invested directly into Bitcoin (BTC).

Related: Nayib Bukele announces Bitcoin prescription for El Salvador: 1 BTC a day

During the last 12 months, the project has been repeatedly delayed — at some point, its launching phase was scheduled for the beginning of March, then it got postponed to September, only to be put off one more time due to “security reasons.”

According to some sources, the bill may be approved by legislators before Christmas. Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which collaborates with the government of El Salvador on the bonds project, seems to be optimistic about that time:

After making BTC a legal tender on Sept. 7, 2021, El Salvador accumulated over 2,301 BTC for roughly $103.9 million. During the bull market, the profit from the investment was even used to build schools and hospitals. However, as the country’s economy continues to struggle, 77.1% of citizens prefer the Salvadoran government to stop “spending public money on Bitcoin.”

Nayib Bukele announces Bitcoin prescription for El Salvador: 1 BTC a day

El Salvador currently holds 2,381 BTC with a total investment of $103 million, the value of its BTC investment has declined to $39.4 million in the current market conditions.

As the world’s first nation to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender in September 2021, El Salvador is going back to its BTC buying days after a pause for months amid bearish market conditions.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced on Nov.16 that the Central American nation will start purchasing BTC on a daily basis starting from Nov.17. The announcement comes nearly three months after the nation made its last BTC purchase in July 2022.

El Salvador started buying BTC in September 2021, right after making it a legal tender. At the time, BTC was in the mid of a bull market and every purchase made by the nation looked lucrative as the price was hitting a new all-time high every other week. However, with the advent of the bear market by the second quarter of 2022, El Salvador’s early BTC purchases started to look like a gamble that incurred heavy losses.

According to public records, El Salvador currently holds 2,381 BTC at an average buying price of $43,357. Thus, the country has spent nearly $103.23 million on its BTC purchase and the value of the same BTC currently sits at $39.4 million.

El Salvador’s total BTC purchase history

The announcement of a new BTC purchase routine at a time when the top cryptocurrency is trading at a new cycle low could help El Salvador offset some of its losses in the coming months.

Looking beyond the losses incurred by the small nation on their BTC purchases, the top cryptocurrency has been instrumental in helping reduce the cross-border remittance cost significantly and has also given a boost to the tourism sector.

Related: El Salvador’s Bitcoin decision: Tracking adoption a year later

Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall is currently on the ground in El Salvador and only surviving on BTC. Some early updates from Hall suggest that BTC is accepted at the majority of tourist spots, but mobile applications and services need more refinement.

El Salvador’s BTC adoption might not look very promising at the moment due to the intense crypto winter. However, looking at the Bitcoin price cycle history, the nation can easily offset its losses in the next bull cycle by simply holding onto its BTC purchase.

Salvadoran President Bukele says Bitcoin is ‘the opposite‘ of FTX

Despite the backlash he previously received for purchasing BTC as markets crashed, Bukele cited the recent FTX collapse to explain why Bitcoin is different.

The shock wave around the FTX explosion was felt globally as it severely fractured investor confidence. However, seasoned crypto entrepreneurs and supporters — including Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele — continue to see through the fog while pushing forward their vision for financial freedom.

Bukele was the man behind Bitcoin’s (BTC) mainstream adoption in El Salvador. Despite the backlash he previously received for purchasing BTC as markets crashed, Bukele cited the recent FTX collapse to explain why Bitcoin is different.

“FTX is the opposite of Bitcoin,” said President Bukele while explaining the inner workings of the Bitcoin protocol. The Bitcoin white paper highlights the importance of an immutable peer-to-peer network in achieving a trustless financial system.

An excerpt from the Bitcoin white paper. Source: bitcoin.org

Bukele called out FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and other financial fraudsters, including Bernie Madoff, while pointing out that the Bitcoin protocol prevents such bad actors from financial wrongdoings, adding that:

“Some understand it, some not yet. We’re still early.”

Moreover, his message supporting Bitcoin reiterated that Bitcoin has a limited market capitalization of 21 million, making it a truly rare global asset to own. The crypto community overwhelmingly reacted with “he gets it” replies.

Related: Bitcoin will shrug off FTX ‘black swan’ just like Mt. Gox — analysis

United States Representative Brad Sherman recently blamed “billionaire crypto bros” for the delays in legislation alleging their direct involvement in campaign contributions.

“I believe it is important now more than ever that the SEC take decisive action to put an end to the regulatory gray area in which the crypto industry has operated,” the senator added.

Sherman’s remarks relate to SBF’s $39.8 million fund infusion in the previous 2022 U.S. midterm elections.

How to build a Bitcoin Beach: Advice from the pros

Founders of Bitcoin Beach El Salavdor, Bitcoin Ekasi in South africa, Dakar Bitcoin Days in Senegal and Global Bitcoin Fest shed light on building Bitcoin communities around the world.

How does one build a Bitcoin (BTC) community? How to start? Where to begin? And what are the best practices? 

Cointelegraph spoke to Bitcoin community builders around the world to shed light on a growing phenomenon in the Bitcoin world.

From Indonesia to South Africa to El Salvador and the Congo, circular-based Bitcoin economies and community projects have sprung up across the globe. Cointelegraph asked the successful community-focused Bitcoiners how to kickstart a Bitcoin circular economy and what advice they’d lend to enthusiasts looking to replicate the success of projects like Bitcoin Beach, El Zonte.

Using Bitcoin at Bitcoin Beach. Source: Twitter

For Bitcoin community project leader Mike Peterson, it starts with Lightning. Peterson pioneered the Bitcoin Beach project in the sleepy surf town of El Zonte, El Salvador. The circular economy energized an entire nation and eventually led to El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. Peterson told Cointelegraph:

“You need to be using lightning for for people to be transacting and to build a circular economy. It really needs to be built on lightning. [..] You need to get people transacting.”

The layer-2 Lightning Network is a payments solution built on top of Bitcoin. In El Salvador, El Chivo is among the most popular Lightning-enabled Bitcoin wallets, although it has experienced issues since its rollout. Across the rest of the world, Bitcoin enthusiasts use Wallet of Satoshi, Muun Wallet, CoinCorner or Blue Wallet to instantly transact with one another. Peterson continued: 

“If you get them making that first transaction and they see how easy it is and that they’ve actually sent value from one person to another in like a second time for hardly almost no fees, that’s what the light bulb goes off and they realize the value that that has.”

Ultimately, leading with Lightning helps newbies realize that Bitcoin can be easy and even fun. In the Isle of Man, where there is a budding Bitcoin community, United Kingdom-based exchange CoinCorner has found inventive ways to demonstrate the Lightning Network.

Bitcoin Ekasi Project next to Mossel Bay, South Africa. Source: Twitter

Hermann Vivier, founder of Bitcoin Ekasi in the Western Cape of South Africa, shared a few tricks to establishing a Bitcoin economy. First, while it’s important to “put one foot in front of the other,” and “just start,” he said, try to see if there’s a preexisting community to tap into:

“We had something that that was already existing and we built the Bitcoin community on top of that.”

Bitcoin Ekasi is a township project that keeps kids away from gangs in school and among South Africa’s Atlantic waves, where they learn lifeguarding and surf skills. Vivier teaches Bitcoin as another element of the kids’ education.

Recent: What can blockchain do for increasing human longevity?

Furthermore, Vivier also shared that it’s important to keep it simple. Stick to Bitcoin, he joked. His hours of labor and love given to this community project have turned him into a “Bitcoin maximalist,” as it helps in avoiding the risk of scams in crypto, while blockchain buzzwords can get in the way of making progress:

“I would say 100% focus on Bitcoin only. And if there was something better than Bitcoin out there, then that’s what you should focus on. But at the moment Bitcoin is where it’s at.”

Nourou, founder of Bitcoin Senegal, a community-led Bitcoin project in West Africa, told Cointelegraph, “You cannot create a community if you aren’t capable of answering people’s questions–and that requires a wide range of knowledge.”

Iman Yudha, who leads a group of crypto and Bitcoin enthusiasts in Indonesia, agrees. He told Cointelegraph that it’s important to “Get educated first–before you make any decisions. That’s my personal opinion.”

After establishing a solid basis of foundational knowledge about Bitcoin, crypto and security. Nourou recommends to start talking about Bitcoin with close relations:

“Start with the family if you can’t convince your mother, your brother, your sister, the cousins, and so on, it’s a bad start.” 

He notes that the following step varies depending on the culture, business practice and environment. Over in Senegal, “it is the wealthiest who roughly define fashion, who define trends. So people tend to copy them.” It’s for that reason that Nourou tried to target his Bitcoin communication to those communities first. Incidentally, Nourou is hosting West Africa’s first major Bitcoin conference, Dakar Bitcoin Days, on Dec. 2 in West Africa’s largest theater.

Cointelegraph attended Dakar, Senegal’s first ever Bitcoin meetup in 2022.

Lukas, a co-founder of Global Bitcoin Fest — which holds marathon Twitter Spaces for people all around the world — again encourages Bitcoin enthusiasts to focus on the people. It can be “lonely” in the land of Bitcoin, he told Cointelegraph, so finding a team with shared values can spur things along. He shared an example:

“It’s a conversation that I’ve had recently with two guys in Zimbabwe. They want to kickstart a [project] there. He wanted to do it, but he was alone. […] Then he found Metamorphoses, another great maxi, and now they’re forming a team — and the energy is completely different now.” 

Yudha chimed in, sharing that energy and enthusiasm are critical, and community builders should avoid being “toxic” where possible. 

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In short, these Bitcoin pioneers suggest finding like-minded individuals to work with, starting small, taking advantage of existing communities, knowing and understanding the subject matter and not overstretching. The simplest way to do this is to focus on Bitcoin and Bitcoin only. And to get people interested and transacting, get people using the Lightning Network because that’s what gives people their own light bulb moment.