Bitcoin News
By Jean-Luc Maracon
1 / 15
Bukele, Security, and the Social Cost. Nayib Bukele has been in power since 2019. His method is known: a firm hand on security, budgetary…
2 / 15
Bitcoin Sacrificed, Economy Rewarded. Bitcoin, then. The experiment lasted a little over three years.
3 / 15
The IMF has just approved a $140 million tranche for El Salvador. Not a gift — a transaction.
4 / 15
El Salvador had been living this experiment for a little over three years. Three years trying to prove that a state could operate with an asset as volatile as Bitcoin alongside…
5 / 15
The formal approval of the IMF's board of directors is still pending to actually release these funds. It's an administrative step, but it matters.
6 / 15
Nayib Bukele has been in power since 2019. His method is known: a firm hand on security, budgetary austerity, aggressive communication on social networks.
7 / 15
But the human cost is real. About 15,000 civil servants have been laid off, according to economists.
8 / 15
And despite the growth, about 30% of the population still lives below the poverty line. El Salvador remains one of the countries with the lowest growth rates in Central America…
9 / 15
Human rights organizations have also sounded the alarm over the methods used to reduce crime — mass arrests, detention conditions, civil rights under pressure.
10 / 15
Related topic: Bitcoin Surpasses $80,000 and Aims for a New High Before April 2028 Halving
11 / 15
Bitcoin, then. The experiment lasted a little over three years. The initial idea was ambitious: financially include the unbanked populations, attract crypto investors, position…
12 / 15
See also: SEC Approves Options for WisdomTrees BTCW, Empowering Institutional Bitcoin Strategies
13 / 15
But in practice, adoption by the population remained limited. Many Salvadorans did not use Bitcoin daily. The asset's volatility made it complicated to pay for a tortilla or rent.
14 / 15
So when the IMF set its conditions to unlock $1.4 billion, Bukele's political calculation was quite direct: $1.
15 / 15
Investors and remittances continued to flow in. The Salvadoran diaspora sends significant amounts each year — it's a major source of income for the country, and it didn't depend…
The Currency Analytics
Want the full story?