El Salvador’s approval of bitcoin as legal tender, making it the first country in the world to do so, has delighted cryptocurrency fans but left markets unconvinced.
The Central American nation’s Congress passed a bill late on Tuesday paving the way for bitcoin to be used in a variety of daily financial transactions from buying property to paying taxes.
It is the first time the highly volatile and decentralized cryptocurrency has been recognized by a national government and comes as regulators in Europe, China and North America are moving to contain the market.
“Some larger, more powerful countries are trying to quash or slow the inevitable shift to borderless, global, digital currencies,” Nigel Green, chief executive of the financial consultancy deVere Group said.
Green said the decision made sense for countries like El Salvador, which uses the dollar as its official currency and is interested in finding an alternative that doesn’t come with the US currency’s political constraints.
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{Matzav.com}
