The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, confirmed via Twitter on Sunday evening that the Latin American country had succeeded in including more than 3 million users to its Chivo wallet app in just 26 days.
El Salvador has a total population of 6.48 million, which means that nearly half of its citizens received $30 worth of bitcoin within the first month the government made it legal.
Bitcoin dropped from around $52,600 in the first few weeks after the historic September 7 adoption, but spent October rising in the $47-48K range. The global Bitcoin total hash rate also increased at this time.
It remains to be seen if and to what extent Bitcoin’s rally above the September 7 mark of $52,000 initially changes the general sentiment of Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador.
It is noteworthy that the government of El Salvador itself has so far collected 700 bitcoin, worth over $33 million at the time of writing, up from about $31 million on September 20. El Salvador last bought bitcoin at a dip around the $45,700 mark, at a time when Bukele believed the asset was undervalued by the global market.
The country is now in the green in terms of dollar value when buying, but more importantly, Bukele has demonstrated his intent to buy, hold, and mine Bitcoin for the long-term, and the country remains the only country to openly hold Bitcoin as a reserve.
In just four months, Bukele managed to make El Salvador the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal currency, distribute $30 worth of Bitcoin to all citizens of the country via the state-sponsored Chivo app, install 200 Bitcoin ATMs within the country, buy 700 Bitcoin for the national reserve And start mining the hardest money known to man on the volcano side, with 100% renewable geothermal energy.
The world is watching this experiment, and my bitcoiners are eager to know the next country to adopt bitcoin as countries either have to compete or be left behind. The prisoner’s dilemma started from a game perspective in global politics, and the nation states that embrace bitcoin first have a huge advantage.