Apr 3, 2025
Ibiam Wayas
In June 2021, El Salvador made history by becoming the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The initiative, spearheaded by the country's young and tech-savvy President Nayib Bukele.
Bukele pitched the idea to the Salvadoran Congress, where his Nuevas Ideas party held a strong majority. In a swift and decisive move, the legislature passed the Bitcoin Law with a supermajority vote of 62 out of 84.
The legislation mandated that Bitcoin be recognized as an official currency alongside the U.S. dollar, which El Salvador had used as its sole legal tender since 2001.
Under the new law, all businesses were required to accept Bitcoin for goods and services, provided they had the technological means to do so.
The Bitcoin Law officially took effect on September 7, 2021, but the rollout was far from smooth.
On launch day, the Chivo wallet launched by the government crashed under heavy demand, and Bitcoin’s price plummeted by over 10%, fueling skepticism about its volatility.
Despite the challenges, Bukele doubled down, even buying Bitcoin dips with public funds and tweeting defiantly about the country’s crypto journey.
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