El Salvador Plans to Buy More Bitcoin Every Day Despite Losing Millions Already (gizmodo.com) 51
Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, announced late Wednesday that his government plans to buy one Bitcoin every day starting on Thursday. Gizmodo reports: The current price of one Bitcoin is roughly $16,540, down 1.5% from a day earlier and down 73% from a year ago. Bitcoin was trading at an all-time high of over $68,000 in November 2021 when El Salvador was purchasing large quantities of Bitcoin. President Bukele has already lost El Salvador tens of millions of dollars, according to the latest calculations by Bloomberg News. El Salvador hasn't publicly confirmed how many bitcoin purchases the country has made, but based on Bukele's tweets we can determine he's purchased 2,381 Bitcoin since the start of his experiment. The price for all the country's Bitcoin holdings has totaled $105 million to purchase, according to Bloomberg, while the current worth is roughly $39.4 million. Bukele would've been smarter just holding U.S. dollars as cash, even with annual inflation at almost 8%.
Despite declaring Bitcoin an official currency in El Salvador in late 2021, few people are actually using the crypto for purchases in the country. And one of the common reasons cited for declaring it a currency, sending remittances back to the country from abroad, has been a bust as well. Roughly $6.4 billion dollars was sent as remittances to El Salvador from September 2021 until June 2022, but less than 2% of those were in cryptocurrency, according to Reuters. The Bitcoin experiment has also caused El Salvador's credit rating to get knocked down repeatedly, with the country's rating currently sitting at CC, due to the likelihood it will default on bond obligations that are coming due in 2023, according to CoinDesk.
Despite declaring Bitcoin an official currency in El Salvador in late 2021, few people are actually using the crypto for purchases in the country. And one of the common reasons cited for declaring it a currency, sending remittances back to the country from abroad, has been a bust as well. Roughly $6.4 billion dollars was sent as remittances to El Salvador from September 2021 until June 2022, but less than 2% of those were in cryptocurrency, according to Reuters. The Bitcoin experiment has also caused El Salvador's credit rating to get knocked down repeatedly, with the country's rating currently sitting at CC, due to the likelihood it will default on bond obligations that are coming due in 2023, according to CoinDesk.
It can only go UP in value. (Score:5, Funny)
Just so long as it gets past all this downward trending it's doing. Should be headed REAL HIGH soon.
Yeah, that's what it is.
Re: (Score:2)
It's called "Buy the dip!".
Not a bad strategy for companies that are undervalued and suffering a temporary setback, but for other things, well...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
INVEST IN GUILLOTINES! THEY GO BOTH UP AND DOWN! (Score:2)
If not guillotines per se, then machetes, axes large gardening sheers and other implements applicable to the task of lowering profit expectations, head first.
Good job (Score:2)
Gonna catch that knife!
Re: (Score:2)
Don't. Wait for the knife to drop, then wait for some idiot to bend over to pick it up, then kick the bozo in the face.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you kidding? I put that $2k into the bank and retired!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: No More Covid Funds (Score:2)
How much did each american get in covid funds?
Re: (Score:2)
How much did each american get in covid funds?
Tree fiddy.
Seriously though, the Covid stimulus money was like a blip for me considering how much my income slid with everything being shut down. The last thing on my mind was the possibility of blowing my rent money on magic internet dildocoins. The stimulus was means tested, so wasn't as if it had gone to people who had a lot of extra money to throw around in the first place.
Re: (Score:3)
Zero magic dildocoins were bought, just clothes for the kids and a new TV- consumer demand boosting purchases, which I believe, was their intent.
That being said, I can easily imagine some people I know blowing that money on dildocoins. Then again, they're not trying to raise kids.
Well, less loss potential now... (Score:1)
Good news is buying here the most they can lose is $16k per BTC.
Personally I would wait until the corruption from the crypto space washes out before buying any but who knows.
I think there is a chance BTC is worth a non-zero amount in the future so that is something.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Good news is buying here the most they can lose is $16k per BTC.
Yep, if they're smart they continually (maybe quietly, but public is defensible) buy needed things with BTC (breads, circuses, that sort of thing) to keep their exposure low. If they're not smart, well it depends on how things go and how many days it goes for.
Bitcoin and Ether will probably do OK.
for now. Just another layer of the onion.
Luckily El Salvador has plenty of ______ to draw upon to back up their economy. Which is: oil reserves? Nope. mineral deposits? nope. Salvadorenos? Err demand problems there. Kind neighbors? nope. PUPUSAS! Umm
Wo
Filling in the blank (Score:1)
El Salvador has plenty of ______ to draw upon to back up their economy. Which is:
Real estate and ability to purchase citizenship in a tax friendly country, with a ready ability to produce food.
So yeah, kind of PUPUSAS. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Personally I would wait until the corruption from the crypto space washes out before buying any but who knows.
Once "the corruption from the crypto space washes out", crypto won't be a thing any more.
See, crypto is a scam. It was always a scam.
I think there is a chance BTC is worth a non-zero amount in the future
Maybe tomorrow. Only a fool would bet on any crypto long-term. They've just about run out of suckers. Well, I mean, you're still there, but there's only so many marks like you willing to help earlier suckers cash-out.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, I mean, you're still there
Where am I? I don't have any crypto, I guess you are just super bad at reading... I have not been in crypto for some time now.
crypto won't be a thing any more.
Crypto will be there because (a) people want a way to store money outside government systems, which are becoming increasingly oppressive (just wait until CDBC from multiple governments pushes people into alternative currencies).
Now will crypto still have the value it has now? That I very much doubt. Currently it see
Re: (Score:2)
This is what you wrote:
Personally I would wait until the corruption from the crypto space washes out before buying any but who knows.
You couldn't be more credulous:
Crypto will be there because [... insane right wing nonsense ...]
LOL! Sounds like an endorsement to me.
it's better if you can distrust it for the right reasons.
You should distrust it because ... it's a scam!
That you don't know it's a scam tells me quite a bit.
Peter Schiff says Gold-on-Blockchain will come (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
That's stupid. The weak point would be with the exchange. Who says they don't fractionally reserve your "gold"? Yes, yes. We have ALL of your gold in our vaults! (LOL, NOT!)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
imagine planning their budget (Score:1)
before you conclude .. (Score:2)
before you conclude that this sucker guy is just ridiculous (and i would agree) just think for a moment that he was just following "general trends" and his "original" way to confront adversity is just doubling down. now, make no mistake, wherever you live: your powers that be do exactly, i repeat: "e.x.a.c.t.l.y", the same.
Wouldn't be the first (Score:1)
financial (put quotes around that if you want) crisis to bankrupt a country
Iceland in '08 (credit market)
Russia in '98 (asian financial crisis)
Price fluctuation (Score:2)
What if BC goes up in "value?" (Score:1)
(or any usable currency)
Fundamentals are a bitch.
Re: (Score:2)
His take was that crypto ("fairy coins") are contrasted with usable currencies, such as the USD.
He did not suggest that USD or other national curriencies are valueless...
The beatings will continue (Score:2)
Why not FTX... (Score:3)
Funniest/saddest thing in all of this is... (Score:2)
...that should this episode one day be taught in school everyone will misremember his name as Bukkake.
Someone explain why a phone for buying BTC? (Score:3)
From what I have read, the President of El Salvador is using a phone to buy Bitcoin. If a head of state is making large purchases of gold or such, it would be done by a former contract, with a vetted, trusted courier that has many guards, an insurance company, just in case a heist is done.
A phone is not rated for this high value stuff. Many people don't even trust their phones for banking.
Is there some type of actual secure device that can be used for this purpose? It seems like a very weak link in a chain that if broken, would net an organization a lot of cash.
smart move (Score:2)
HODL! (Score:1)
A fool and their economy are soon parted. (Score:1)
next in news: El Salvador president disappears (Score:2)
Doubling down on stupid (Score:2)