Welcome to Latam Insights Encore, a deep dive into Latin America’s most relevant economic and cryptocurrency news from the past week. This edition examines the future of El Salvador after yielding to the IMF’s bitcoin de-risking policies.
Latam Insights Encore: El Salvador on a Tightrope While Juggling IMF's Requirements
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Latam Insights Encore: El Salvador Struggles to Keep Being a Bitcoin Country
Finally, it happened. While many were still hoping that El Salvador would be able to sidestep its duties with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding its bitcoin-derisking actions, the day came.
Last week, Salvadoran lawmakers passed a reform of the bitcoin law, that introduced bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. The new document, that was hastily approved, now makes bitcoin another competing currency in the nation, removing its legal tender status with confusing wording.
Read more: El Salvador Complies With IMF Requirements: Bitcoin Legal Tender Status Withdrawn
Members of the bitcoin community in El Salvador have voiced their disappointment with this development. John Dennehy, founder of the educational organization My First Bitcoin, based in El Salvador, has described how the changes might affect future moves by other countries.
Dennehy believes this will set a bad precedent, as the IMF was able to dictate changes in the economic policy of El Salvador. On the deal with the IMF, he stated:
The IMF is the judge, jury and executioner. The IMF, not El Salvador, will determine if they run afoul of any terms.T his isn’t about a law being changed, this is about who changed it. El Salvador’s govt passed the law, but they were on orders from the IMF.
However, El Salvador is still purchasing bitcoin, and the recent actions by Tether, one of the biggest companies in the crypto industry, show that the regulatory framework pushed by Bukele in the digital assets field has served its purpose.
Even without bitcoin as legal tender, Bukele will seek to navigate the IMF’s terms to continue being a digital assets hub in Latam and a pioneer in the world of digital assets.
As Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino concluded in his latest interview with Salvadoran local press, El Salvador “is the country of the future. I believe that El Salvador and Latin America will be one of the main spaces for the world’s future.”
Read more: Tether Discusses 70-Story Skyscraper Construction in El Salvador: ‘It Is the Country of the Future’
