El Salvador is proposing a bill to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. In a videotaped announcement shown at the Bitcoin 2021 Conference in Miami, President Nayib Bukele said he would submit the bill this week.

Fast Facts:

  • Jack Mallers, the CEO of Zap — a Bitcoin investment and payments company that transacts over the Lightning Network — announced the news at the Bitcoin 2021 conference, saying that his company was working with El Salvador and Bukele to implement the Bitcoin standard.
  • Although the bill will still need to be reviewed by El Salvador’s legislative assembly, Bukele’s political party is in firm control of the chamber, so approval seems all but assured.  
  • If approved, the proposed law would make El Salvador the first nation in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
  • At the Bitcoin conference, Mallers framed Bukele’s proposal as a pushback against unprecedented money printing by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which he says has been “crushing emerging markets” such as El Salvador’s dollarized economy.