The International Monetary Fund is taking issue with El Salvador’s recent move to make Bitcoin its second official currency.
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced his plans for the Bitcoin law last week at the annual Bitcoin Conference in Miami; his bill was officially adopted yesterday, making El Salvador the only country in the world to require local merchants to accept cryptocurrency.
“Adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender raises a number of macroeconomic, financial, and legal issues that require very careful analysis, so we are following developments closely and will continue our consultation with authorities,” said IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice at a press conference Thursday morning. “Crypto assets can pose significant risks and effective regulatory measures are very important when dealing with them.”
Bukele is widely regarded as an autocrat—since taking power in 2019, he’s gutted the country’s constitutional court and used the threat of violence to effec
