The collapse of El Salvador's bitcoin dream

In 2021, El Salvador caught the world's attention by becoming the first country to make cryptocurrency legal tender, alongside the US dollar.

Last December, as the price of bitcoin broke $100,000 (£77,765) for the first time, the young president Nayib Bukele posted on social media that the Central American nation's crypto holdings had more than doubled in value. But now – as the price for securing a $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) loan deal from the International Monetary Fund – the country has had to roll back its controversial bitcoin policies.

Salvadoran businesses are now free to decide whether or not to accept bitcoin, and taxes are no longer payable in the cryptocurrency. "The potential risks of the bitcoin project will be diminished significantly, in line with Fund policies," the IMF said. Effectively, bitcoin's days as legal tender in El Salvador are over.

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'Cryptocurrency paradise'

Bukele's embrace of bitcoin was part of an attempt to "rebrand the tiny and impoverished" nation as a "surfing and cryptocurrency paradise", said the Financial Times. He announced plans to build a "Bitcoin City" in the jungle, "powered by geothermal energy on the slopes of a volcano".

The president claimed cryptocurrency would bring the "70% of Salvadorans who do not use traditional banks into the financial system", said France24. "Swatting away warnings about volatility risks", he ploughed an "undisclosed amount of public money into cryptocurrencies".

But the IMF always opposed Bukele's adoption of bitcoin, said the BBC, and warned that it would be an obstacle to any financial assistance. For a long time, the Salvadoran economy has "teetered on the edge of default", as the IMF stayed "wary" of lending to the country while the volatile currency – with its "potential use in money-laundering and other crimes" – was legal tender, said The Economist.

'More costs than benefits'

El Salvador is still "a focal point for the global bitcoin community", said Forbes. But the mood is now "somewhat subdued" among crypto enthusiasts, one local journalist told the news site.

"A lot of international bitcoiners moved to El Salvador for the Bitcoin Law; some Salvadorans returned," said Joe Nakamoto. "Now, doubt about the country's future with regards to bitcoin has crept in."

But bitcoin's "demotion may be more of a blessing than a concession", said The Economist. Crypto has brought El Salvador "more costs than benefits". The much-promised investment and tourism "have been small beer", while financial gains have been "meagre at best", because the currency "never really caught on". According to a poll published in January by Universidad Centroamericana, 92% of Salvadorans didn't use it at all last year.

Overall, the policy has cost $375 million (£291 million), according to estimates by rating agency Moody's – a sum that "far exceeds the profits on bitcoin holdings, which could still evaporate". There is still no Bitcoin City.

Bukele's "obsession with cryptocurrency has done little to ease El Salvador's economic woes", said the magazine. He is "just the latest crypto-utopian to see his wild ideas dissolve on contact with reality".