The government then announced they were setting $150 million to be utilized as funds to support the approved legal measure. Officials said they would give $30 in BTC to individuals who will sign up for an electronic wallet dubbed “Chivo.”
According to a research study conducted by the University of Central America, around 77% of El Salvadorans believe the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender in their country was a massive failure.
Moreover, 75.6% of the people revealed they haven’t used cryptocurrencies this year. Such a development is surprising considering the administration of Bukele exerted efforts in popularizing the digital asset class
The idea that the government is using public funds to accumulate BTC also did not sit well with the citizens, as 77% of them said such action should stop immediately.
As to Bitcoin’s supposed benefit of making it easier to send remittances, a September 2022 report from the Salvadoran Central Bank revealed only 2% of remittances involved digital currencies.
Bukele picked the best time to venture into Bitcoin last year as the crypto ultimately reached an all-time high of around $69,000 last November.
But with the volatile nature of the crypto space, the El Salvador government experienced severe losses as BTC price plunged and is currently struggling to make another bull run.
At press time, according to tracking from Coingecko, Bitcoin is trading at $19,173, down by more than 70% from its all-time high. With that, instead of focusing on the negative reception, the law has gotten from the masses, the government is dedicating its time and resources to realizing its goal of making the country a global crypto hub.
