Is El Salvador’s Bitcoin embrace a cold shoulder to the US?

Here’s what to know about El Salvador’s move to accept Bitcoin as legal tender.

This week El Salvador became the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender, prompting a flurry of speculation about how the smallest Central American nation, which ranks among the region’s poorest, will fare using the volatile cryptocurrency. Yet for one small Salvadoran beach town, crypto is already part of daily life. Businesses in El Zonte have been using it since 2019 after the launch of “Bitcoin Beach”, a programme whose mission is to build a “sustainable Bitcoin economic ecosystem on the coast of El Salvador”. “There are more than 50 establishments — from mobile-phone-minute stands to vegetable and fruit vendors, shops, hardware stores, restaurants and hotels — that use Bitcoin for daily transactions,” said Carlos Enrique Ortiz Novoa, who started accepting Bitcoin at Olas Permanentes, his hotel, restaurant and surf camp, in March 2020.