President of El Salvador Says He’s Submitting Bill to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender
El Salvador is developing a bill to recognize bitcoin as legal tender, according to President Nayib Bukele. In a videotaped announcement shown Saturday, he said he will submit the bill next week.
Zap’s Jack Mallers announced the news at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. He said his company is working with Bukele to implement a plan.
The bill must still be reviewed by the country’s legislative assembly. But with the populist Bukele’s upstart political party in firm control of that body, approval seemed all but assured Saturday afternoon.
Their approval would likely make El Salvador the first nation to adopt a bitcoin standard. Its full text was not immediately available.
But it is not yet clear what being “the first bitcoin country” will mean for the fiscally unstable and oppressively poor central American nation, where 70% of residents lack a banking account. Bukele’s bill was not immediately available Saturday.
Mallers’ Strike, a Lightning Network payment app, has been on the ground in El Salvador this summer, with Mallers claiming to onboard 12,000 Salvadorans a day during the app’s peak activity in the country.
