In a recent survey by José Simeón Cañas Central American University in El Salvador, 77.1% of Salvadoran respondents think that the government should stop spending public money on Bitcoin. Last year, the government recognized Bitcoin as a legal tender, and on that, 24.4% of Salvadoran respondents say they have used Bitcoin as a means of payment since the government’s announcement.
Central American University, which is a privately owned but nonprofit university, conducted this survey, and local Salvadoran residents polled this survey regarding their opinion on Legislative Decree No. 57. In September 2021, Legislative Decree No. 57. recognized Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador. In September 2022, more than 1200 interviews valid interviews were collected, which reported a margin of error of 2.75% on a 95% confidence interval.
There was no direct link between the adoption of Bitcoin and the country’s economic situation. But since Bitcoin became legal tender, 95% of survey respondents said that their lives stayed the same or have gotten worse. Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president is very famous for his Bitcoin campaign, and this move attracted tourism and foreign investment.
Last year, Bukele proposed founding a Bitcoin City, in which the nominal tax rates are set at 0%. For this project, Volcano Bond funded $1 billion. Bukele is a politician and blockchain personality, and he is also known for publicizing repeated purchases of BTC with the country’s national budget. According to the Nayib Bukele Portfolio Tracker, to date, the Salvadoran government has spent over $107 million buying Bitcoin. After this year’s bear crypto market, these investments are currently only worth around $45 million.
