El Salvador’s government picks up 420 Bitcoin amid price dip
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El Salvador’s government, the first in the world to make a cryptocurrency legal tender, picked up 420 more bitcoins as price dipped below $60k.
Bitcoin has been on a major hotstreak over the past two weeks maintaining a price above $60k for 11 consecutive days before finally deflating yesterday to $58k.
El Salvador’s government used the brief dip in price as an opportunity to pick up $25m worth of Bitcoin, adding 420 coins to the 150 purchased by the government on 20 September.
“It was a long wait, but worth it. We just bought the dip! 420 new Bitcoin,” the country’s charismatic young president Nayib Bukele wrote on Twitter.
“hahaha we’re already making a profit of the bitcoin we just bought,” wrote Bukele an hour later as Bitcoin’s price climbed back towards the $60k mark.
It comes after El Salvador declared that every business in the country would be required to accept bitcoin alongside the US dollar as part of a massive economic experiment.
The scheme was proposed as a way to help Salvadorans save on commissions for remittances, mostly sent from the United States. Last year the country’s economy received a $6bn boost from remittance payments, but lost out on $400m paid in commission fees.
Bitcoin, the so-called King of Crypto is renowned for facilitating low-cost, seamless international payments.
Its safe to say that not everyone in El Salvador is sold on the idea. The first month of the roll out was marred by protests, technical glitches and some major price volatility.
Nonetheless, Bukele insists that the policy is popular with 3m citizens getting a government issued Chivo crypto wallet, nearly half the country’s population.
In recent weeks, El Salvador has even begun mining Bitcoin using geothermal power generated by volcanoes to up the government’s crypto holdings.
Read more: El Salvador begins mining Bitcoin using volcanic energy