Bukele's Bitcoin gambit mostly gathering criticism
The adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador has not created a financial bonanza for El Salvador. Instead, El Salvador's Bitcoin trading, led by its Bitcoin-cyber bro president, has accumulated $18 million USD in unrealized losses, and the country's credit rating on world financial markets has fallen through the floor. The International Monetary Fund urges Bukele to reverse course, and the likelihood of needed loan funding from the IMF seems ever more remote.
All of this has produced an abundance of negative commentary in the world press. Today, only the Bitcoin maximalists seem to be unreserved fans of Bukele's Bitcoin gambit. Here is a collection of recent articles:
- Nayib Bukele trades bitcoin naked. El Salvador is paying the price (Wash. Post, Jan. 26)
- El Salvador was the first country to adopt Bitcoin. It might be the first to go broke, too (Miami Herald, Jan. 26)
- Bitcoin Trades Add to El Salvador’s Sovereign Risk, Moody’s Says (Bloomberg, Jan. 13)
- IMF urges El Salvador to strip Bitcoin’s legal tender status (AlJazeera, Jan. 25)
- El Salvador Buys $15 Million Worth Of Bitcoin ‘Really Cheap,’ President Crows, As Selloff Continues (Forbes, Jan. 21)
- El Salvador’s plan to create the first Bitcoin-powered nation is tanking the economy—and is a mess by every measure (Fortune, Jan. 19)
- The 3 Reasons Behind Bitcoin-Holder El Salvador's Deteriorating Creditworthiness (Coindesk, Jan. 20)
- El Salvador’s president made Bitcoin a national currency. A Jesuit says the project reminds him of ‘the seven deadly sins’ (America Mag, Jan. 24)
announced by Bukele on Twitter
- Blame the Bitcoin bond? El Salvador’s dollar-denominated debt slides (FxStreet, Dec. 27)
- An Entire Country Switched to Bitcoin and Now Its Economy Is Floundering: Like Bitcoin itself, El Salvador isn’t doing so hot right now. (Futurism, Jan. 20)
- El Salvador Is Now Over 31% Down on Its Bitcoin Bet (Crypto Briefing, Jan. 20)
- Crypto superfans including Elon Musk and El Salvador’s president are using McDonald’s to mock bitcoin’s dramatic crash (Fortune, Jan. 25)
- In El Salvador, Bitcoin’s Libertarian Streak Meets an Autocratic Regime (Wired, Jan. 2)
- After the Bitcoin crash, El Salvador is betting its economy on buying the dip (Quartz, Jan. 27)
Making fun of fact that he has lost more than $20 million in Salvadoran government funds investing in Bitcoin, Bukele posts a picture of himself in a McDonalds uniform - from a refrain in the investing community - "I lost it all investing in X - now I have to work at McDonalds." https://t.co/A9eexzQiZr
— Tim Muth (@TimMuth) January 23, 2022
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