El Salvador failed to get the World Bank’s financial assistance on the country’s plan to adopt Bitcoin as one of their legal currencies. The news was confirmed last Thursday, June 17 by the spokesperson of the World Bank.
The World Bank stated via email to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that they are open to helping El Salvador in any way they can but there are certain limits to what they can do.
‘We are committed to helping El Salvador in numerous ways including for currency transparency and regulatory processes,’ the World Bank spokesperson said.
‘While the government did approach us for assistance on bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings,’ they added.
Just recently, on June 9, the measure allowing the use of cryptocurrency in all transactions in El Salvador was approved by the legislature and will take effect come September, making El Salvador the first country to formally use cryptocurrency as a legal currency, alongside the US dollar.
According to a report by news site Channel News Asia published on June 18, El Salvador’s Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya stated that they are not replacing the US dollar as the main currency for transactions but will only allow the nation to use digital currency as an alternative.
On the other hand, the government is in continuous negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding additional financial aid. Minister Zelaya added that the negotiation was successful but the IMF saw some possible issues and concerns regarding the use of cryptocurrency.
Moreover, the nation pushed for this agenda on June 5 at the time of the Bitcoin conference in Miami. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele disclosed during the conference that he aims to introduce a new law on Bitcoin to allow the use of the digital asset as a legal tender for all kinds of transactions nationwide.
This move aims to promote more banking options for the people of El Salvador and good development progress for the growth of the economy.
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