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:marseyflagelsalvador: El Salvador's Bitcoin experiment: $60M lost, $375M spent :marseywallst: :marseylaugh:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/13/el-salvadors-bitcoin-holdings-down-60percent-to-60-million-one-year-later.html

Orange Site:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33228206

:marseysnoo:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/y40wvu/el_salvadors_bitcoin_experiment_60_million_lost/

https://old.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/y2wyb2/el_salvadors_bitcoin_experiment_60_million_lost/

https://old.reddit.com/r/ElSalvador/comments/y3eplz/el_salvadors_bitcoin_experiment_60_million_lost/

https://old.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/y36xx7/el_salvadors_bitcoin_experiment_60_million_lost/


El Salvador's bitcoin holdings down 60% to $60 million, one year later

The use of bitcoin in El Salvador appears to be low, as the currency has lost about 60% of its value since the experiment started and the country still faces plummeting economic growth and a high deficit. Data from Bloomberg Economics shows that El Salvador tops its ranking of emerging market countries that are vulnerable to a debt default. Pair these economic woes with a renewed war on gang violence and the country is barreling toward uncertainty. «The government claims the developments as a success, but most local commentators and international watchers are underwhelmed,» Rachel Ziemba, founder of Ziemba Insights, told CNBC.

Bitcoin uptake appears low

7, 2021, Jaime Garcia was hopeful that it would fix a few big problems with the way that Salvadorans send, receive and spend money. As part of the law, prices are now sometimes listed in bitcoin, tax contributions can be paid with the digital currency, and exchanges in bitcoin will not be subject to capital gains tax. To help facilitate national adoption, El Salvador launched a virtual wallet called «chivo» that offers no-fee transactions, allows for quick cross-border payments, and requires only a mobile phone plus an internet connection. It aimed to bring users onboard quickly, both to scale bitcoin adoption and to offer a convenient onramp for those who had never been a part of the banking system.

Bukele tweeted in January that about 60% of the population, or 4 million people, used the chivo app, and more Salvadorans have chivo wallets than traditional bank accounts, according to a Sept. Still, only 64.6% of the country has access to a mobile phone with internet, that note says. National Bureau of Economic Research showed that only 20% of those who downloaded the wallet continued to use it after spending the $30 bonus. A survey by the El Salvador-based El Instituto de Opinion Publica, a public opinion think tank, found that 7 in 10 Salvadorans do not think the Bitcoin Law has benefited their family economy.

Another survey by the institute found that 76 out of 100 small and medium-size enterprises in El Salvador do not accept bitcoin payments. «There seems to be evidence that most people used it primarily to get the free money from the government but have not used it on an ongoing basis given volatility and fees,» Ziemba said. «Nobody really uses the app to pay in bitcoin. People that do use it, mostly use it for dollars».

Incumbent services can charge 10% or more in fees for those international transfers, which can sometimes take days to arrive and require a physical pickup. But in 2022, recent data shows that only 1.6% of remittances were sent to El Salvador via digital wallets. «This is a new money, a new way of doing things for a population that is very comfortable with dollars. » .

Squawk Box

Its debt-to-GDP ratio is almost 90%, and its debt is expensive at around 5% per year versus 1.5% in the U. «The domestic debt is very large, relatively short duration and needs to be rolled over frequently,» said Muci, who previously worked at the Growth Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Only the Federal Reserve can print more dollars. Meanwhile, its other national currency, bitcoin, is revered for the fact that it, too, is impossible to mint out of thin air. «One of the big issues has been the fact that the bitcoin gimmick has distracted from the fiscal and economic challenges of the country and made it more difficult for the country to access IFI lending and preferential terms,» Ziemba said.

Ziemba added that there have been some swaps with major crypto firms that allowed the country to raise cash to pay off the debt due this year, and perhaps early next year, but the long-term debt sustainability remains a challenge. «The country is sleepwalking into a debt default,» Muci said.

Tourism and presidential popularity solid

On the day the Bitcoin Law took effect, Bukele revealed that the country had begun to add bitcoin to government coffers. Since then, the price of the cryptocurrency has plunged more than 60%, stoked by rising interest rates and failed projects and bankruptcies in the industry. None of these losses are locked in until the country exits its bitcoin position. In aggregate, the entire experiment and all its associated costs have only set the government back around $375 million, according to estimates.

The tourism industry is up 30% since the Bitcoin Law took effect, according to official government estimates.

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>national acceptance of the currency

>total investment is worth less than half of the alex jones judgement

Lmao imagine calling youself a country at that point.

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/r/Buttcoin is a huge pool of seeth everytime crypto rises and has some of the biggest smugposts i have seen when it crashes, peak reddit :marseylaugh:

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goldfish brain is common

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