The Historic Date has Come; Bitcoin Officially Becomes El Salvador's National Currency

The world looks to El Salvador, as El Salvador officially recognises Bitcoin as its national currency today, September 7, 2021. Many crypto advocates are excited about Bitcoin becoming a national currency and are looking to El Salvador for more cryptocurrency developments.

El Salvador is making history

More than two decades ago, it would have been hard to imagine any country adopting Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency as a national currency. Today, the time has finally come: El Salvador is the first country in the world to recognise bitcoin as a currency, just like the United States Dollar.

The El Salvadoran Congress voted 62 out of 84 in June to approve President Nayib Bukele 's proposal to recognise bitcoin as legal tender, making it a second national currency alongside the US dollar. El Salvador has since become a topic of debate, with some nations criticising the new move while others support it. The United States, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank rejected the idea of Bukele.

It is still unclear which country will follow El Salvador's lead and become the second country in the world to make cryptocurrency an official national currency. Shortly after El Salvador expressed interest in making Bitcoin a national currency, many heads of state and government officials expressed their support for cryptocurrencies, as reported by CoinIdol, a world blockchain news outlet. Panama and Paraguay were the first South American countries to openly state their intention to legalise cryptocurrencies. 

In Africa, Tanzania's president Samia Suhulu Hassan urged the country's central bank to be "ready" for a large-scale adoption of cryptocurrencies. Although it is unclear what the rest of the world's support for cryptocurrencies will look like, things seem to be going in favour of cryptocurrencies. Some countries have now gone a step further and developed digital versions of their national currencies, while others are liberalising cryptocurrencies and related activities on their territories.

Time flies

It's been nearly three months since the historic vote in Congress to adopt Bitcoin  as a national currency in El Salvador, but it feels like it was just yesterday. Today, at exactly midnight local time, El Salvador became the first country on Earth to adopt a cryptocurrency as legal tender.

The Bukele government has paved the way for the introduction of Bitcoin. The government had earlier planned to set up 200 Bitcoin ATMs across the country and more were in the works. The government has also authorised commercial banks to process bitcoin transactions along with the crypto wallet "Chivo".

Bitcoin hit $52,000 amid plans to launch El Salvador as cryptocurrency supporters cheered President Bukele's efforts to lead the cryptocurrency revolution. The president also announced on Monday that El Salvador had bought its first 200 coins.

The long wait is finally over as El Salvador becomes the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as its national currency. The event may be responsible for Bitcoin's upward trend. The cryptocurrency community is cheering loudly.