Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: Tim Draper predicts bitcoin will make El Salvador a rich country, President Nayib Bukele vows to keep buying bitcoin, and Banco do Brazil announces offline capabilities test for the Brazilian CBDC.
Latam Insights: Tim Draper's Bitcoin Prophecy for El Salvador, Bukele's Bitcoin Rush
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Tim Draper Expects Bitcoin to Transform El Salvador Into One of the Richest Countries in the World
Tim Draper, an investor and founder of several venture capital organizations, recently pondered over the decisions that made El Salvador warm up to adopting bitcoin as a legal tender and its repercussions for the nation’s future.
In the Web3 Deep Dive podcast, hosted by cryptocurrency reporter Rachel Wolfson, Draper stated that bitcoin is helping El Salvador to grow and become a better nation, and will determine the country’s future in the coming years.
Draper stressed:
They will have within maybe 30 or 40 years gone from the poorest most crime-ridden country to maybe one of the richest most innovative countries in the world just in that period of time and just because they embraced bitcoin.
Furthermore, Draper also stated that the bitcoin purchases by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele will allow the country to pay off its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and “never have to talk to them again.”
President Nayib Bukele Vows to Keep Buying Bitcoin
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele shared an update on El Salvador’s “1 bitcoin a day program” on social media platform X on Friday.
The “1 bitcoin a day program” was initiated in November 2022 when Bukele announced El Salvador’s daily purchase of one bitcoin, starting on Nov. 18, 2022. On Friday, he provided an update on the program, stating that El Salvador will continue to buy bitcoin daily “until bitcoin becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies.” He also revealed that the latest BTC from the program has been deposited into El Salvador’s address that recently received “a large chunk” of the country’s bitcoin stash.
Banco Do Brasil to Test Offline Payments in Brazilian CBDC Pilot
The Brazilian central bank digital currency ( CBDC) project, Drex, might become usable offline. Banco Do Brasil, a bank owned 70% by the Brazilian state, and Giesecke+Devrient, a German information and tech security company, have teamed up to include offline capabilities to the pilot of Drex, the Brazilian CBDC.
This new feature focuses on supporting the use case of Drex as a payment method in areas where internet connection is deficient or unavailable, like in remote regions of Brazil. Drex is being profiled as a complement to cash, which is currently the second most used payment method in the country.
The alliance will allow the participants to test the feasibility of this offline solution, and its technical compliance with Drex’s future architecture.
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