El Salvador to Build 20 'Bitcoin Schools' with Cryptocurrency Profits

El Salvador’s government will use surplus profits earned from cryptocurrency investments to build 20 new schools across the Central American country, El Salvador’s Diaro La Huella newspaper reported Monday.

“I want to announce that with a few million that we have left from the profits of bitcoin, we are going to build 20 bitcoin schools, fully equipped and modern,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said at an event held on November 1 to mark the launch of construction for El Salvador’s first public veterinary hospital.

The facility is likewise funded by federal cryptocurrency profits.

#ChivoPets | “Cuando se hizo este proyecto no habíamos ganado tanto dinero en el FIDEBITCOIN como hemos ganado ahora. Así que hemos decidido hacer las 20 primeras Escuelas Bitcóin”: Presidente de la República, @nayibbukele. pic.twitter.com/PsQPlMcda9

— Secretaría de Prensa de la Presidencia (@SecPrensaSV) November 2, 2021

“God willing, more works will come from the profits of a trust that was created and a law that was created because we ignored the opposition,” President Bukele said on Monday.

El Salvador’s Congress passed a “Bitcoin Law” on June 8. The legislation went into effect on September 7 making El Salvador the first nation in the world to officially recognize the cryptocurrency bitcoin as a legal form of tender.

El Salvador’s legislative body approved a law on August 31 “to create a $150 million fund to facilitate conversions from bitcoin to U.S. dollars,” Reuters reported at the time. In the two months since its establishment, the Salvadoran Trust for the Adoption of Bitcoin has purchased over 1,000 bitcoins, the Independent reported on November 2.

“The crypto purchase has coincided with a major price rally for bitcoin, which has risen roughly 40 percent since the Bitcoin Law was introduced,” according to the British newspaper.

El Salvador’s announcement of its surplus cryptocurrency profits comes just one week after “Bitcoin broke through to an all-time high of nearly $67,000,” Nasdaq’s Bitcoin Magazine noted on November 2.

A Chivo Wallet Bitcoin ATM burns during a protest against President Nayib Bukele’s policies on Independence Day in San Salvador, on September 15, 2021. – Thousands of Salvadorans demonstrated on Wednesday to demand that President Nayib Bukele respect the separation of powers and reject the introduction of bitcoin as legal tender. (MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images)

“On 28 October, President Bukele confirmed via Twitter that the Latin American nation bought the ‘Bitcoin price dip,’ exchanging dollars for Bitcoin at a time he believed it remains undervalued by the global market,” the cryptocurrency magazine recalled.

“El Salvador’s most recent purchase of 420 Bitcoin brought its national stack to 1,120 Bitcoin, worth over $70 million at the time of writing,” according to the publication.

President Bukele said on November 1 the country’s bitcoin-funded veterinary hospital will employ 300 Salvadorans.

Bukele’s administration said it worked to establish bitcoin as a legal tender within El Salvador to help the country retain $400 million in financial fees lost through remittance transactions annually. Salvadoran citizens sent $6 billion in remittances — or money earned while living and working abroad — home to El Salvador in 2020, largely through traditional wire transfer services. Remittances, predominantly from the U.S., account for roughly 23 percent of El Salvador’s GDP. The Central American nation has recognized the U.S. dollar as its official currency since 2001.

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