Monday Market Musings | Week 46 | 2024
Bukele's Bitcoin Dance
With the rise we have seen Bitcoin make in the past period, with one ATH after another flying around your ears, there is one person who should not go unmentioned. Nayib Bukele. The president of El Salvador will have gotten out of bed every morning lately with a happy dance to celebrate his controversial Bitcoin decision. In the crypto world, we all celebrated a little when this president accepted Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador, but he only received a lot of criticism outside the crypto world. Where the International Monetary Fund even kept urging him to reconsider his decision. Bukele ignored this and stuck to his decision. His courage has been rewarded in recent months, and he will undoubtedly celebrate his decision these days.
Positive Developments And Necessary Challenges
If we look back at what Bitcoin has brought to El Salvador, there are both positive developments to be found and the necessary challenges. Now that is of course to be expected. Bitcoin is and remains a cryptocurrency, which brings with it essential volatility. Accepting Bitcoin as a legal tender has not changed anything about this. This volatility means that it remains a risk for many El Salvadorans to use Bitcoin for daily transactions, and the reason why many El Salvadorans, both individuals and companies, still prefer cash. There is still skepticism about their president's decision. They see this step as a distraction from the economic problems that exist there. Now you always have Yay- and Naysayers everywhere. That will not be much different in El Salvador than in other countries on our planet.
Cheaper And Faster Money Transfers
Nevertheless, Bitcoin has also brought great advantages to El Salvador. Transferring money is essential for El Salvador, many families depend on money that has to be transferred from family members abroad. This always involved very high costs and can be arranged cheaper and much faster since the introduction of Bitcoin as a legal tender. This has proven to be a great advantage, especially for families in the countryside of El Salvador who often did not even have a bank account.
Tourism Boost And Green Energy
This is not the only advantage, there have also been many crypto enthusiasts, and still are, who have given tourism in El Salvador a significant boost. "Bitcoin Beach" is visited by tourists from all over the world to attend a conference, for example. This supports local companies in El Salvador and will certainly also ensure more prosperity in the long term. If El Salvador can continue to develop this, everyone will ultimately benefit. El Salvador itself has made improvements to its infrastructure, they have invested in transport, in digital technology and the energy projects have taken off. Foreign investors have jumped in. One of the best-known companies is Volcano Energy, which focuses on the use of geothermal and solar energy to sustainably mine Bitcoin. This initiative also attracts more foreign investment. El Salvador is pioneering further in green energy, especially within the crypto sector, and is growing slowly. If the country can keep this up, prosperity will certainly grow in the long term. The challenges will remain, but the first cautious positive developments are also visible.
Competition For El Salvador As Bitcoin Country
In the US, Trump will be back in power in two months, with a Republican Senate and House of Representatives behind him. In 2016, Trump was anti-crypto, but somewhere in the last 8 years he changed his position and became completely pro-crypto. He remains a businessman. But where El Salvador is working hard on sustainability and green energy, Trump wants to fully focus on fossil fuels to make the US THE Bitcoin country.
The fact that he profiles himself as pro-crypto is a good thing for crypto, we can see that in the enormous increases of the last few weeks, the fact that he wants to achieve this mainly with fossil fuels is a very bad thing for the world.
The Bull Market Is Here
Ultimately, Bitcoin does not care about energy issues, and the bull market that we have all been looking forward to for so long has arrived. Enjoy, but keep your funds SAFU. Don't let yourself be fooled, and especially don't believe that this bull market is endless!
It was interesting to hear about El Salvador and Bitcoin being legal tender there. I feel like more and more people are slowly starting to consider it as a viable currency. Even here in outback Australia we now have a bitcoin ATM in our shopping mall.
Here is to Trump pushing to accept Bitcoin as legal tender in the US. If that happens I believe a lot of other countries will follow.
Have a great day!
I don't think Trump wants to accept Bitcoin as legal tender in the US, but he wants to use Bitcoin to strengthen the US dollar
correct, making it possible to be independent from banks
!BBH
@brofund! @fiberfrau likes your content! so I just sent 1 BBH to your account on behalf of @fiberfrau. (1/20)
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While I am excited about the idea of making the US more crypto friendly, I think the focus on fossil fuels is a bad idea. Nuclear maybe, but we need to stop thinking so short term and start thinking about the world we want to leave for our kids.
I couldn't agree more with you. But I'm afraid that in the next four years thinking about the future in terms of energy is not going to happen in the US.
No, not at all.
Maybe it would make a difference if America had a younger president, but then they have to be elected. For Trump it makes no difference, he is advanced enough in age that he does not have to worry about the consequences of the choices he makes now.
Yeah, and I don't really think he worries about anyone besides himself. It would be nice to see some younger faces running our country.