El Salvador’s government is gambling on bitcoin
President Nayib Bukele has already lost around $50m in public funds
When a president boasts that he manages the country’s wealth from his smartphone while naked, it hardly inspires confidence. Even less so in a country that has a debt-to-gdp ratio of 84% and least of all when the president is investing in bitcoin, which this week fell to its lowest value in 18 months. Welcome to El Salvador, which became a tech bro’s playground a year ago, when President Nayib Bukele, its social-media-obsessed leader, made the cryptocurrency legal tender.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Cryptocracy”
From the June 18th 2022 edition
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