The country bought 400 bitcoins ahead of the roll-out, with a market value of about $20 million at current prices. The country plans to buy “a lot more” of them, President Nayib Bukele said via Twitter, after buying the first batch of 200.
Bitcoin is undergoing the biggest test in its 12-year history as El Salvador becomes the first country to adopt it as legal tender Tuesday.
Both enthusiasts and detractors of crytocurrencies will be monitoring the experiment to see if a significant number of people want to transact with Bitcoin when it circulates alongside the US dollar, and whether it brings any benefits to the violent, impoverished Central American nation.
