El Salvador has purchased 150 more bitcoins (worth $6.8 million at current prices), President Nayib Bukele said on Twitter Monday, tweeting, “We just bought the dip.”
El Salvador now holds a total of 700 bitcoins, worth about $32 million at current prices. One bitcoin is currently priced at around $45,600, according to TradingView.
El Salvador legalized bitcoin on September 7, becoming the first country to do so. The Central American nation is also the first country in the world to hold bitcoin on its balance sheet and hold it in its reserves.
El Salvador has taken several initiatives in recent weeks to grow the adoption of bitcoin in the country. It operates a wallet app called Chivo, which citizens can use to transact in bitcoin. El Salvador also brought bitcoin ATMs dubbed Chivo to several U.S. cities to make remittances easier and cheaper.
The country recently also passed a law to create a $150 million fund to provide $30 to citizens when they sign up to the Chivo app and to help facilitate conversions from bitcoin to U.S. dollars. While bitcoin is legal tender in El Salvador, citizens are not required to use the cryptocurrency. Businesses, on the other hand, that have access to the proper technology need to accept it as a payment method. They can then convert bitcoins into U.S. dollars using the Chivo wallet.
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