Sharjah24 – AFP: El Salvador on Tuesday becomes the first country in the world to accept bitcoin as legal tender, despite widespread domestic skepticism and international warnings of risks for consumers.
President Nayib Bukele's government claims the move will give many Salvadorans access to bank services for the first time and save some $400 million in fees on remittances sent home from abroad every year.
"Tomorrow, for the first time in history, all the eyes of the world will be on El Salvador. #Bitcoin did this," Bukele said on Twitter Monday.
He started the ball rolling Monday evening by announcing El Salvador had bought its first 400 bitcoins, in two tranches of 200, and promised more were coming.
The 400 bitcoins were trading at around $21 million, according to the cryptocurrency exchange app Gemini.
Recent opinion polls showed a majority of El Salvador's 6.5 million people reject the idea and will continue using the US dollar, the country's legal currency for the last 20 years.
In June, El Salvador's parliament approved a law to allow the crypto money to be accepted as tender for all goods and services in the small Central American nation, along with the US dollar.
The bill, an initiative of Bukele, was approved within 24 hours of being presented to Congress -- where the president's allies have held a majority since March.
Experts and regulators have highlighted concerns about the cryptocurrency's notorious volatility and the lack of any protections for its users.
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