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- A Tongan politician is proposing legislation to make bitcoin legal in the island nation.
- If successful, Tonga will follow El Salvador’s adoption of the cryptocurrency earlier this year.
- Bitcoin adoption has faced criticism and protests in El Salvador, and its adoption in Tonga could face a difficult path forward.
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A Tonga politician is seeking to draft a bill to legally bid for Bitcoin in Tonga.
Tonga may follow El Salvador in adopting Bitcoin
Deputy Tonji Lord Fusitwa Drafting a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender in Tonga.
In an interview with financial reviewFusitu’a revealed that a El Salvador-style Bitcoin bill will be presented to the country’s parliament in May 2022.
Fositwa said that his country would benefit by making bitcoin legal tender alongside the country’s existing currency – the Tongan paanga.
The politician first expressed interest in bitcoin in mid-2021, although at that time his interest was limited to investing in the asset class.
From the drafting of the law to its passage, the legislation will require significant support from other Tunisian politicians, as well as the country’s central bank.
Tonga has a population of just over 100,000 and a GDP of about $500 million as of 2020. Despite being a small Pacific island nation, Tonga is likely to pave the way for other Pacific islands to follow its path of asset adoption. decentralization.
Lord Fusitwa said incoming foreign remittances make up a large part of Tonga’s GDP, and by adopting bitcoin, the island nation could improve its cross-border payment system.
In September, El Salvador made history by becoming the first country to introduce legal bitcoin.
Some view the legal adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador as a turning point that indicates that cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are beginning to become an essential part of the global financial system.
However, El Salvador’s decision to adopt bitcoin as the country’s official currency was met with heavy criticism. President Neb Bukele, who oversaw the bitcoin law, also faced several protests from local political parties over monetary change in the country.
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