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Making Bitcoin Legal Tender in El Salvador an 'Interesting Experiment,' Central Banking Official Says
At the same time, the BIS executive cast doubts on the cryptocurrency as a "means of payment."
Benoit Coeure, the head of the innovation hub at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), an organization owned by central banks across the world, said El Salvador’s move to adopt bitcoin as legal tender is an interesting experiment, according to a report.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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- "El Salvador, that is an interesting experiment indeed," Coeure said at the launch of a regulatory research hub at the Bank of England on Friday, Reuters reports.
- "We have been clear at the BIS that we don't see bitcoin as having passed the test of being a means of payments. Bitcoin is a speculative asset and should be regulated as such," Coeure said.
- El Salvador became the first nation in the world to recognize bitcoin as legal tender and mandate that all businesses in the country accept it as payment.
- On Tuesday, a supermajority of the nation’s legislature voted in favor of President Nayib Bukele’s proposal for the nation to adopt bitcoin.
- The BIS executive is the latest to express concern about the Latin American country’s decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
- On Thursday, International Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice said El Salvador's plan to adopt bitcoin as legal tender raises "macroeconomic, financial and legal issues."
Read more: El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bill Raises ‘Issues’: IMF Spokesperson
Tanzeel Akhtar
Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.
