Every country that has failed to make bitcoin legal tender
On June 5, 2021, a crowd of thousands in the US heard that El Salvador had adopted bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. After a few days of celebration, speculation about other countries following suit immediately captured their collective imagination.
Although most countries were ambivalent about BTC prior to the news, a wave of media attention prompted rumors and scheduled meetings with various heads of state.
Over the years, predictions by various dignitaries sustained the faith of additional countries adopting BTC.
All of those predictions failed, however. As of publication time, BTC is not legal tender in any country — not even El Salvador.
Below is a summary of some of the failed attempts by sovereign nations to adopt BTC as legal tender. Although the reasons for failure were unique to each nation, the outcome was exactly the same.
Central African Republic
Second to El Salvador itself, the next most eligible country to have adopted BTC as legal tender was the Central African Republic.
On a technicality, the country’s legislature passed a law that attempted to make BTC a type of legal tender in 2022. Specifically, the country legalized digital asset transactions and adopted BTC as a “reference” currency and “economic agent” for the payment for goods and services.
An English language announcement on social media by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra was so staged that many suspected it to be a deepfake. The announcement also coincided with an announcement of Sango Coin, a suspicious altcoin.
His dubious social media approach would continue years later when he announced a sovereign memecoin that crashed 90% on its first day.
Ultimately, however, the country changed its stance on BTC as any type of legal tender within a few months. The vast majority of merchants in the country never accepted BTC, and most residents lack reliable access to the Internet and electricity to broadcast BTC transactions anyway.
Indeed, there was a near-total lack of public awareness about its supposed adoption.
In the end, it’s doubtful that BTC was ever legal tender in the country. The point of the whole exercise seems to have been an attention grab for two altcoins, Sango Coin and its memecoin, CAR.
Read more: Central African Republic’s -95% memecoin crash is a repeat performance
Próspera
Próspera, a special economic zone in Roatan, Honduras, recognized BTC as a unit of account. For whatever that was worth, the region’s leadership permitted BTC as a measure of the value of goods and services in official documentation.
Acting manager and tax commissioner Jorge Colindres said the move would support residents’ freedom “to carry out transactions, do their accounting and report taxes in the currency of their free choice.”
However, BTC has never been legal tender in Honduras, BTC is not accepted for the payment of federal taxes, and Próspera hasn’t completed a planned BTC settlement rail on its e-Governance portal.
The social media account of the special economic zone hasn’t posted since November, and Bloomberg recently profiled the collapse of real estate and business operations in the area, which it called an $11 billion nightmare.
Tonga
Tongan Prime Minister Lord Fusitu’a introduced a bill to make BTC legal tender in 2022. He also quoted an article referring to him as “laser-eyed” in an X post — a symbol of belief in prior years that the price of BTC would reach $100,000.
The bill never advanced in Tonga’s legislature, and BTC has never been legal tender on the island.
Fiji
When Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka took office in 2022, he explored the possibility of making BTC legal tender in Fiji. With Tonga being geographically close to Fiji, Fusitu’a expressed enthusiasm about Fiji’s exploration in another X post.
However, as with Tonga, the effort stalled when Fiji’s central bank opposed it.
Mexico
Mexican Senator Indira Kempis introduced a bill to make BTC legal tender in February 2022. She mentioned El Salvador’s BTC efforts as a source of inspiration. Jan3’s Samson Mow, the leading advocate for nation-state BTC adoption, boasted about the possibility of Mexico’s adoption.
Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego has publicly stated that 70% of his investment portfolio is allocated to BTC-related assets.
The bill never made it out of committee, however, largely due to a lack of political support. In the end, BTC has never been legal tender in Mexico.
Zimbabwe
In 2021, Zimbabwean Permanent Secretary and Head of its e-government Technology Unit Charles Wekwete announced that it was consulting with the private sector on making BTC legal tender. Although the government was skeptical, it also considered positives like potentially lowering international remittance fees.
Those discussions stalled, and BTC never became legal tender in Zimbabwe.
El Salvador
Finally, El Salvador itself is also on the list of countries whose efforts to make BTC legal tender have failed. Despite official recognition as legal tender for several years, the majority of merchants in the country never accepted the currency.
On its books, the country’s dictatorship passed a bill defining BTC as legal tender in June 2021. Three months later, the law went into effect via a heavily incentivized Chivo app launch that included unsustainable cash giveaways.
Earlier this year, El Salvador rescinded BTC as legal currency as it caved to pressure from the International Monetary Fund so that it could access financing. Merchants are no longer required to accept BTC as payment, and the government will no longer use public funds to buy BTC.
Elsewhere in Central America, Panama also failed to adopt BTC as legal tender despite years of rumors.
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