El Salvador's president says will send bill to make bitcoin legal tender
Representations of the virtual currency Bitcoin stand on a motherboard in this picture illustration taken May 20. Reuters-Yonhap
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said on Saturday that he will send a bill to Congress next week to make bitcoin legal tender in the country.
"In the short term this will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy," Bukele said in a video shown at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami.
Strike, a mobile payments app that launched in El Salvador in March, said in a statement that it welcomed the legislation and was working with the country to make using bitcoin technology a success.
“This is the shot heard 'round the world for bitcoin," Strike founder and CEO Jack Mallers was quoted as saying at the Miami conference.
"Adopting a natively digital currency as legal tender provides El Salvador the most secure, efficient and globally integrated open payments network in the world," Mallers said. (Reuters)