More On: Bitcoin
How much 6 popular cryptocurrencies lost in 2022 ?
How people who watch the market were wrong about bitcoin in 2022
Twitter Is Too Musk to Fail
Why Jim Cramer suggests purchasing bitcoin or ethereum, with one exception
El Salvador's bitcoin experiment has cost $375 million so far and lost $60 million
'Nothing good has occurred.'
Southbound
While the value of Bitcoin continues to plummet, Politico reports that El Salvador, which embraced Bitcoin as legal tender last year under its blockchain-loving president, is seeing an increase in gang violence.
According to Politico, Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele was unable to attend a major crypto conference in Miami last month due to gang violence that resulted in the country's worst single-day murder surge since 1992, when the country was engulfed in civil war.
Bukele is taking to harsh tactics to quiet the violence, such as threatening to imprison media who publish gang remarks.
Previous Experience
Despite a spike in foreign investors and streams of tourists, it was evident that there was trouble in crypto paradise even before Bitcoin's turbulent crash this week.
While we can't say for sure whether Bukele's Bitcoin boosting was the direct reason of the country's spike in violence, it hasn't helped the region's socioeconomic instability.
Critics are now pointing out how Bukele's leadership style is diametrically opposed to the glitzy Bitcoin fantasies he promised last summer, around the time he originally declared plans to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country.
"The Bitcoin ideology is for freedom," Claudia Ortiz, a potential presidential candidate to Bukele, told Politico, "but the Bitcoin experiment in El Salvador is part of an authoritarian project, and that's nonsensical."
Eat It
Ezequiel Milla, the former mayor of La Union, El Salvador, which is home to a volcano where Bukele established a geothermal Bitcoin mining plant, put it even better.
"Nothing good has happened," Milla said near the Conchagua volcano's base.
He appears to be correct lately.
=====
** Information on these pages contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Markets and instruments profiled on this page are for informational purposes only and should not in any way come across as a recommendation to buy or sell in these assets. You should do your own thorough research before making any investment decisions. All risks, losses and costs associated with investing, including total loss of principal, are your responsibility. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of USA GAG nor its advertisers. The author will not be held responsible for information that is found at the end of links posted on this page.
