After weeks of silence on all things bitcoin (BTC)-related, El Salvador’s outspoken President Nayib Bukele has taken to Twitter to announce that his government has bought USD 15.4m worth of BTC – and to showcase plans for Bitcoin City. However, voices of opposition are continuing to issue warnings, with a former chief of the central bank hitting out at Bukele’s plans to fund the city’s construction with a bitcoin bond issuance.
As previously reported, many observers have claimed that the bond issuance will not take place, after the government missed its own deadline of mid-March. The government has refuted such claims. For much of the year, however, Bukele – usually very active and vocal about all things BTC-related – has been silent on bitcoin-related matters, instead tweeting mostly about his government’s war with the pandilla street gangs.
That has all changed in recent hours, when Bukele announced that his government had “bought the dip” – purchasing BTC 500 for an “average price of USD 30,744.” Bitcoin prices have continued to stall near the USD 30,000 mark, with only mild recoveries since the President made his move. At 7:14 UTC on Tuesday, it's trading at USD 32,094, down 5% in a day and 16.5% in a week.
The purchase means that El Salvador has bitcoin reserves of over BTC 2,300 (USD 73.8m), although no official government records detailing the purchases have been made – and Bukele’s tweets on the matter are the only communication from the government on the subject.
Bukele also posted a number of images of a gold-colored 3-D model of the city, which is being constructed at the foot of a volcano currently being used to mine BTC using geothermal energy.
He returned to post two rendered images showing what the completed
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