Return of the coin... Earlier this week, crypto prices fell after US officials recovered $2.3M in Bitcoin ransom. Yesterday, Bitcoin surged 9% after El Salvador became the first country to approve the cryptocurrency as legal tender. El Salvador currently uses the US dollar as its official currency. Expect some cryptic changes:
A new idea indeed... El Salvador's President and his New Ideas party say the move will improve financial inclusion among the 70% of Salvadorans who don’t have access to traditional financial services. Introducing BTC as legal tender could also ease the "remittance fee" burden:
This could be a valuable experiment... for developing countries considering crypto as legal tender. But analysts are worried about the economic risks posed by BTC’s extreme volatility. El Salvador is one of Central America's poorest countries, and has struggled to manage its finances. It could benefit by converting BTC to $$$ when the crypto's price is high, to help cover its huge deficit. On the flip side, things could go sour if BTC moves the other way, as it has over the past month.