El Salvador’s crypto-friendly moves over the last couple of days have put the region on a pedestal. However, the International Monetary Fund, aka IMF, wasn’t happy with this decision at all.
El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele went on all in, with regard to the adoption of crypto. The president went on to make El Salvador the first country to give Bitcoin a legal tender status. With this law in place, every economic agent in the country would be obligated to accept Bitcoin as payment. This law also aids in the easy transfer of remittances from Salvadorans living away from the country.
IMF views the “macroeconmic” repercussions of BTC becoming a legal tender
In a recent press briefing, the spokesman of IMF, Gerry Rice addressed the country’s latest move and suggested that there were many issues that had to be discussed. The IMF has reportedly scheduled a meeting with president Bukele on Thursday to review the latest Bitcoin law. The country is hoping to score a whopping $1 billion program from the IMF, Reuters suggested.
Rice added,
“Adoption of bitcoin as legal tender raises a number of macroeconomic, financial and legal issues that require very careful analysis. We are following developments closely, and we’ll continue our consultations with the authorities.”
Cryptocurrencies have always had a tough time establishing a presence in the financial world. Even though officials across the globe have been constantly trying to regulate the market, cryptocurrencies recorded exorbitant growth in terms of value as well as popularity. However, this surge didn’t stop regulators from reviewing the industry.
Commenting on the same, Preston Pysh, a prominent Podcast host tweeted,
“Similar to how global central banks have incentivized citizens of the world to get in debt up to their eyeballs, the IMF does the same but for nation states. #Bitcoin flips this incentive on its head. Watch El Savador’s actions here…it’s going to be extremely demonstrative.”
Additionally, with this at bay, the country has already started probing on inducing efficient methods of Bitcoin mining. El Salvador has been prepping to use the energy attained by volcanos for mining crypto, considering the environmental issues that surround the mining industry.