Nayib Bukele kills Salvadoran bitcoin initiatives to appease IMF

Nayib Bukele’s tune has seemingly changed his stance on the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bukele once laughed at its bankers causing a dip in bitcoin (BTC) prices, refused to consider repeated requests to revoke the crypto as legal tender, and angered IMF workers with various tweets.

He has also censored the IMF’s views within El Salvador and refused to meet its demands for debt refinancing.

However, yesterday, the president’s staff kowtowed to IMF demands, agreeing to confine his administration’s BTC-related economic activities and transactions, eliminate the acceptance of BTC tax payments, and unwind the government’s involvement with its once-state-backed BTC wallet and ATM network, Chivo.

Bukele made these compromises to get access to a paltry $1.4 billion loan extension to fund his administration’s reform agenda.

“IMF staff thank the Salvadorean authorities for the excellent collaboration and candid dialogue,” press officers wrote, juxtaposing Bukele’s defiant statements with his compliant acquiescence.

Salvadoran authorities also agreed to formalize a policy of voluntary acceptance of BTC as a method of payment for all Salvadoran business owners.

In the end, it all comes down to dollars and cents at the negotiation table. Going forward, according to an agreement by Raphael Espinoza on behalf of Salvadoran authorities, US dollars would be the only acceptable denomination for tax payments in El Salvador.

Assuming El Salvador keeps the promises it has made to the IMF and implements these reforms by drastically dialing back BTC use in the country, the IMF Board will approve its $1.4 billion loan extension request in February next year.

Does a bitcoin rally to $100K repay El Salvador’s IMF loans?

Read more: Bitcoin makes IMF hesitant to issue new loans to El Salvador

The country’s GDP is approximately $34 billion and grows roughly 3% per year.

Because the country claims to own 6,192 BTC, Tim Draper claimed on October 24 that a rally to $100,000 per coin would allow the country to repay its IMF loans “and never have to talk to them again.”

That obviously didn’t happen. Like much of Bukele’s social media-posturing against the IMF, his debts came due and quickly checked him back to reality.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iran completes pre-pilot phase of central bank digital currency

The Central Bank of Iran progresses with CBDC development in anticipation of the Bank of Russia’s governor Elvira Nabiullina’s visit. Iran is moving forward with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) plans, completing preliminary research for the launch of a potential digital rial. The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has successfully completed a pre-pilot phase in the development of Iran’s CBDC, according to an official statement by CBI’s research arm, the Monetary and Banking Research Institute (MBRI). Mohammad Reza Mani Yekta, head of the CBI office for supervising payment systems, announced the news at the ninth annual conference on electronic banking and payment systems on Feb. 20. He noted that Iran’s central bank plans to increase the scope of the CBDC pilot in the country’s payment system, but doesn’t want to rush its implementation. “The pre-pilot phase ended successfully with valuable achievements. The project will soon be launched in other ecosystems and will be used by mo...
Read more

5 Cryptocurrencies Outperforming Others in the Top 100

Image
WLD’s successful rise above the $8 resistance could trigger a jump toward $10. AR might slip below $20 while selling pressure could lead PEPE down to $0.0000013. Increased buying pressure could send FET above $2 while FLR’s momentum had turned bearish. Over the last few weeks, the broader crypto market has experienced major upside with Bitcoin (BTC) hitting $64,000 at one point. However, apart from Bitcoin’s jump, there have been several cryptocurrencies that have been in the spotlight and performed exceptionally. Here are the top five best-performing coins in the top 100. Worldcoin (WLD) Worldcoin’s (WLD) price increased by 217.82% in the last 30 days. At a particular time, the price of the token crossed $9. However, in the last seven days, the upward trajectory had cooled, and at press time, Worldcoin changed hands at $7.72. Based on the 4-hour WLD/USD chart sellers might have gotten exhausted with support appearing at $7.25. However, a build-up bac...
Read more

ChatGPT 4-o predicts Solana price amid ETF forecast for 2025

Image
Solana (SOL), currently the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has experienced a notable price jump in the past 24 hours.  This rise is fueled by VanEck, a well-known New York investment management firm, filing an S-1 registration statement for its “VanEck Solana Trust,” marking the first attempt to launch a spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. In addition, Canadian firm 3iQ Corp recently filed a preliminary prospectus to introduce the Solana Fund (QSOL) in Canada. These filings have generated substantial interest and speculation about Solana’s future price trajectory.   Picks for you 3 cryptocurrencies to turn $100 into $1,000 for end of 2024 32 mins ago Here's Bitcoin's ...
Read more