Ramazan Eles 
Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, recently caught attention with his remarks to Time magazine about the nation’s adoption of Bitcoin as an official currency.
In an interview with TIME, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele discussed the complex outcomes that have emerged from the country’s bold experiment of recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender.
“Bitcoin hasn’t achieved the widespread acceptance we anticipated. However, many Salvadorans are using it, and most major businesses in the country now hold this cryptocurrency,” Bukele stated.
While acknowledging that Bitcoin hasn’t been embraced as widely across the nation as hoped, Bukele emphasized that the adoption has always been voluntary, with no one being forced to use it:
“We offered Bitcoin as an option, and those who chose to adopt it have benefited from its price appreciation.”
The Bitcoin Law, passed on September 7, 2021, during the peak of the last bull market, made El Salvador the first country to accept Bitcoin as an alternative legal currency. The initiative aimed to drive the digital transformation of the economy and reduce the country’s reliance on the U.S. dollar, its most circulated currency.
Initially, the government spent $75 million to distribute approximately $30 worth of Bitcoin to individuals who registered with the state-backed Chivo wallet.
Additionally, the country has added Bitcoin as a long-term treasury asset and plans to build a national Bitcoin mining facility powered by volcanic energy.
Bukele noted that those holding Bitcoin have seen significant returns as the cryptocurrency’s price approaches its previous highs. “Thank God people have reaped these gains. Those who chose not to use Bitcoin, however, missed out on these profits,” he concluded.
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