El Salvador’s government on Monday defended the country’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender, rejecting calls from the International Monetary Fund to change course.
The IMF last Tuesday warned of “large risks” posed by the cryptocurrency’s volatility.
“No multilateral body is going to force you to do anything, absolutely nothing. States are sovereign states and make sovereign decisions about their public policies,” Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya said Monday.
In September, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the US dollar.
At the time, the cryptocurrency was trading at about $44,000.
It hit a record of $67,734 in November, but has since fallen and is now trading at about $38,000.
Last week, the IMF board, “urged” President Nayib Bukele’s government “to narrow the scope of the Bitcoin law by removing Bitcoin’s legal tender status.”
But Zelaya told Channel 21 on Monday the IMF had never asked El Salvador to “eliminate” Bitcoin as legal tender.
He added plans were afoot to issue a Bitcoin bond in the first half of March with “all the safeguards” in place.
Zelaya added that El Salvador continued in negotiations with the IMF for a $1.3-billion financing agreement to clear its debt.
– AFP