The global market capitalization of virtual currency has exceeded $3 trillion in three years as bitcoin prices have continued to rise since former U.S. President Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. The market capitalization of virtual currency has soared by about 25% since the 5th of the U.S. presidential election.
The price of Bitcoin, a virtual currency, has soared, and El Salvador in Central America, which has adopted cryptocurrency as its legal currency, is making a comeback. According to the Bitcoin Office (ONBTC), which is directly under the president of El Salvador, on the 11th (local time), the El Salvadoran government currently holds 5,930.77 Bitcoin.
This is equivalent to about $502.19 million as of 10 a.m. San Salvador time, and the unrealized selling profit is around 90% according to the private website NiveTracker, which analyzes investment gains and losses in real time.
It is a reversal of the situation, which was losing 60% of its money around November 15, 2022. As Bitcoin has recently continued its rally, the price of the day has exceeded the $84,000 mark for the first time in history. El Salvador introduced Bitcoin as a legal currency for the first time in the world in 2021 and is purchasing Bitcoin with the national budget. It was also called the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR).
This is the result of President Naive Bukele, who calls himself a “dictator” and puts his maverick leadership at the forefront, pushing the policy.
President Bukele started investing in Bitcoin with little social consensus process, and last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advised him to “reconsider related policies on virtual currency” as it once lost around 60%. However, in November 2022, he adhered to the philosophy of “buying low points and buying 1 bitcoin every day” and began encouraging public officials to take strategies to guarantee bitcoin as an asset, such as mining bitcoin based on geothermal energy, issuing bitcoin bonds, and activating cryptocurrency transactions.
The Bukele government also established the Bitcoin Fund Management Authority (AAB) for digital asset management, profit protection, and investment, and the AAB general budget was $12.9 million in next year’s budget, which was tightened in accordance with the “debt-free budget plan.”
On the other hand, local media such as El Diarioi said that the Bukele government is trying to continue its optimism about the future of cryptocurrency by reducing the budget in the health and education sectors. El Salvador’s Bitcoin office told X, “The strategic bitcoin reserve has raised the value of the legal currency by nearly $25 million in 24 hours,” adding, “The first mover country is succeeding.”
EJ SONG
US ASIA JOURNAL
