El Salvador isn’t slowing down its Bitcoin agenda. Not after Nayib Bukele’s reelection, anyway.
The 42-year-old Bitcoin-loving Salvadorian leader has secured his second five-year term following the country’s general elections on Sunday.
With soaring approval ratings and leading in pre-election polling by a big margin amid a drastic turnaround in the Latin American country’s once-sky-high crime rates, Bukele — who assumed office in 2019 — was widely expected to secure re-election.
An estimated 87 percent of voters approve of his reelection bid, as per data from CID Gallup.
Nayib Biukele es reelegido como presidente en El Salvador (CID Gallup – Boca de Urna) #EleccionesElSalvador2024 #cidgallup #bocadeurna pic.twitter.com/27LNpVknqj
— CID Gallup (@cidgallup) February 5, 2024
The strongman president claimed re-election victory after the polls closed on Sunday, although electoral authorities had not made the official results at the time of his declaration.
“According to our numbers, we have won the presidential election with more than 85% of the votes and a minimum of 58 of 60 deputies in the Assembly,” Bukele said on X, describing the results as a “record in the entire democratic history of the world”.
Bukele winning a second term in office means Bitcoin, the world’s largest and oldest cryptocurrency, will remain legal tender in El Salvador.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Agenda
As you may recall, El Salvador was the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender — alongside the U.S. dollar — back in September 2021 under President Bukele.
Speaking in a recent interview, El Salvador’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, said the greenlighting of nearly a dozen spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States in early January was an indication that the country’s Bitcoin strategy was a good move.
Bukele has made headlines for his controversial big gambit on the benchmark cryptocurrency. Besides purchasing BTC as an investment, the El Salvador leader also previously unveiled plans for a Bitcoin City — a tax-free city powered by geothermal energy and financed by Bitcoin bonds.
In December 2023, the Salvadoran government announced a ‘freedom visa’ program offering foreigners a residency permit and full citizenship if they invest at least $1 million worth of Bitcoin or Tether into the Central American nation.
Besides his Bitcoin-friendly policies, Bukele has also cracked down on criminal gangs in the nation, resulting in a dramatic decline in murder rates and turning El Salvador into one of Latin America’s safest countries.
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