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El Salvador Calls Another Bitcoin Dip With 150 BTC Purchase

Bitcoin has now become part of El Salvador’s daily life following the official implementation of the cryptocurrency as a legal tender. Since then, the El Salvador government has pledged to purchase bitcoins and has held up its end of the bargain. Now, every time the price of BTC goes down, the country calls the dip and purchase a significant amount of bitcoin.

In multiple instances spread through the past couple of months, El Salvador has purchased millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. The country had purchased 100 bitcoins during the last bitcoin dip. This time around, El Salvador has taken another opportunity to increase its BTC holdings, adding 150 coins to its coffers.

Related Reading | Calls For Tesla To Resume Bitcoin Payments As Mining Reaches 57% Renewable Energy

El Salvador Calls The Dip

Only a week after its last purchase, El Salvador has deepened its bitcoin bet again. The decrease in the value of the digital asset has seen the country taking advantage of the presented opportunity. While a good portion of the market panics and believes that it might be headed into a bear market, El Salvador has gone the opposite way made evident by its BTC purchases.

Once again, President Nayib Bukele had taken to Twitter to announce the purchase which took place on Saturday. Bukele announced to his 3.2 million Twitter followers that the country had bought the dip, purchasing 150 coins at an average price of $48,670, bringing the total loot to approximately $7.3 million.

El Salvador just bought the dip! 🇸🇻

150 coins at an average USD price of ~$48,670 🥳#Bitcoin🎄

— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) December 4, 2021

BTC trading below $50K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Bitcoin In The Green

Although the move on President Nayib Bukele’s part is praised by many in the bitcoin space, not everyone has been happy with the purchases. There has been a lot of criticism regarding El Salvador’s decision to invest in BTC on a national scale but this has rolled off of Bukele like water off a camel’s back.

Related Reading | SEC Boss Acknowledges That Bitcoin Is A Competitor For U.S. Banking System

Responding to a comment saying that the president was wasting taxpayers’ money on a digital asset that was set to suffer more dips, Bukele explained that the BTC the country has purchased so far has remained in profit. Bukele compared its BTC holdings to its gold reserves which are down 0.37% from a year ago while its bitcoin remains in green.

None.

We’re already in the green from our last purchase, in less than 24 hours.

You know boomer, we have 44,106 oz of gold in our reserves.

Worth $79 million, down 0.37% from a year ago.

If we had sold it a year ago and bought #Bitcoin, it would now be valued at $204 million. https://t.co/e5z9cVsfjg

— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) December 4, 2021

With its latest 150 bitcoin purchase, El Salvador now holds 1,370 BTC.

Featured image from Anadolu Agency, chart from TradingView.com

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There Are More People Using Bitcoin Wallets Than Bank Accounts, Says El Salvador President

El Salvador had made history when it became the first sovereign nation to make bitcoin a legal tender. The September 7 official adoption had sent the entire space into jubilation as it had marked a significant stride for BTC. Barely a teenager, the digital asset had grown from being a relativity unknown internet coin to become the official legal tender of a country.

Since then, El Salvador has made strides when it comes to bitcoin. The country had gradually increased its stake in BTC after its first purchase on what has come to be known as “Bitcoin Day” in the country. Adoption of the government-issued bitcoin wallet, Chivo, had grown rapidly as residents of the country took advantage of the $30 sign-up bonus.

Related Reading | Plummeting Bitcoin Exchange Reserves Show Investors Are Not Ready To Sell

It would seem that the adoption was moving at a more rapid pace than expected. Only two months after the law went into effect, President Nayib Bukele has made a revelation regarding the number of citizens who are using bitcoin.

BTC Wallets Being Used More Than Banks

President Nayib Bukele had provided updates at various stages after the adoption on how many people were using Chivo. The number had hit over one million users in the first ten days following September 7th. Subsequent weeks had seen even more adoption by residents who were beginning to accept the cryptocurrency.

BTC price drops down to low $60,000s | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Bitcoin was introduced as a way to make sure that residents of El Salvador, most of them largely unbanked, would have access to services that they would otherwise be locked out of. It would seem El Salvadorians have taken full advantage of this.

Bukele took to Twitter to announce that as of November 15th, there were more people using bitcoin wallets than those holding bank accounts.

There is one country on Earth, where there are more people using #Bitcoin wallets than bank accounts.

Prolly nothing. https://t.co/bZb4M6XZZZ

— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) November 15, 2021

The tweet was made in response to one from Bitcoin.com showing vendors accepting BTC for street food. Citizens of the country still use US dollars in addition to bitcoin but the cryptocurrency looks to be catching on even in rural areas.

Betting On Bitcoin

El Salvador’s support for bitcoin had not ended just at making it legal tender. The country had also bought the digital asset to show its commitment to its long-term growth. The first-ever purchase had been 200 BTC bought on the day the law went into effect. A promise was made to purchase more BTC, which has been done in the two months since.

Related Reading | Crypto Analyst Says Bitcoin Won’t Hit $100,000 This Year, When Will It Hit?

The latest iteration of the country purchasing BTC was two weeks ago when it had purchased 420 BTC for $25 million. Bitcoin had dipped during this period and the country had taken advantage of the situation to add to its bitcoin stash, bringing the total of its holdings to 1,120 BTC.

The world is still looking to El Salvador to see how using a cryptocurrency as a legal tender will play out in the long term. For now, the nation seems to be doing just fine and adapting to the new normal of having a digital currency as a legal tender.

Featured image from Permission.io, chart from TradingView.com

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2.1 Million Salvadorans Actively Using Chivo Wallet, El Salvador’s President Claims

Nayib Bukele, El Salvador president, has claimed that 2.1 million citizens are using the new government-backed Chivo cryptocurrency wallet. In a tweet, he implied the apparent success of Bitcoin in the country.
El Salvador recently adopted bitcoin as a legal tender on September 7, 2021, being the first country to do so.

Related Reading | Just 10 Days After El Salvador’s “Bitcoin Day”, President Bukele Confirms 1.1 Million Citizens Have Chivo Wallet

On Saturday afternoon, president Nayib Bukele shared this update with his 2.9 million Twitter followers. He claimed that Chivo “now has more users than any bank in El Salvador” after just three weeks in operation. He also said that despite Chivo not being a bank, it already has more users than any bank in El Salvador and that it is only a matter of time before the wallet’s adoption surpasses all banks in El Salvador combined.

2.1 million Salvadorans are ACTIVELY USING @chivowallet (not downloads).

Chivo is not a bank, but in less than 3 weeks, it now has more users than any bank in El Salvador and is moving fast to have more users that ALL BANKS IN EL SALVADOR combined.

This is wild!#Bitcoin🇸🇻

— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) September 25, 2021

El Salvador’s Chivo Wallet

The state-issued wallet launched in early September as El Salvador officially recognized Bitcoin as legal tender. Chivo enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments in Bitcoin (BTC) or dollars (USD) from anywhere in the world. Merchants must offer the ability to use both currencies. However, some merchants saying they would rather lose sales than accept bitcoin payments.

Related Reading | El Salvador’s Chivo And Bitcoin Adoption In Mindblowing Facts And Stats

The wallet is available on both Android and Apple devices. Latin American cryptocurrency exchange Bitso is the core service provider for the Chivo wallet. There are now over 200 bitcoin ATMs in El Salvador, the third-largest number of ATMs after the U.S. and Canada.

President Bukele’s goal is 2.5 million Salvadorans, which is approximately 39% of the population. As an incentive, the government offers $30 in bitcoin when people download the wallet app.

Bitcoin Adoption In The Country

President Bukele’s latest update implies that the Bitcoin Law is being received positively by the citizens of El Salvador. However, many protestors have taken the streets to assert their disapproval.

As reported, some protesters even set fire to a brand-new Bitcoin machine, while others held signs reading “Bukele Dictator”. According to the protesters, the president is using authoritarian means to tighten his grip on power. They gathered in the capital San Salvador on the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence, with placards that read “No to Bitcoin” and “Respect the Constitution”.

BTC trading at $43.2K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Apart from the protests, there were reported glitches during the initial rollout. In the first week, one machine completed only three successful transactions out of many. A lot of Salvadorans also do not trust bitcoin because of its volatility.

According to a recent survey from Sherlock Communications, an agency in Brazil, 54% of Salvadorans are not familiar with Bitcoin.

Featured image from Nairametrics, Chart from TradingView.com

 

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El Salvador’s Chivo And Bitcoin Adoption In Mindblowing Facts And Stats

Why didn’t we thought of measuring Chivo and Bitcoin adoption this way? Cero anecdotal evidence. Only facts, numbers, and reports from wherever we can get them. What do we know about the Chivo Wallet’s Lightning node? What apps besides the government wallet are the Salvadorans using? Are they happy with them? Investor and blogger Kevin Rooke has a fresh take on El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption and we’re here to summarize it. 

“I wanted a deeper understanding of how real people in El Salvador are interacting with Bitcoin, so I went off in search of other success metrics.”

Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course

However, since “the Lightning Network is private by design,” it’s hard to accurately measure “payment volumes and the flow of funds between various wallets and exchanges.” So, what did Kevin Rooke do? He looked everywhere else for hard data about Chivo and Bitcoin adoption. Let’s explore what he found.

BTC price chart for 09/24/2021 on Exmo | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
The Chivo Ecosystem Is Growing Fast

To measure the Chivo wallet’s adoption, Rooke used the official information provided by President Bukele. Not ideal, but not uncommon either. It’s easier to get info about the Chivo Lightning node because you can check all the public info here. But wait, why is the Salvadorean government running a Lightning node?

“Just like every other participant on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, Chivo runs a Lightning node. Since Chivo is a custodial wallet, all Lightning payments that Chivo users send to and from other Lightning wallets will transfer liquidity to and from Chivo’s node.”

Through those sources, what did the author find out about the Chivo ecosystem?

  • At the moment, “Chivo’s node has 12.7 BTC of public capacity.” Which is 1,269,941,898 sats.
  • The Chivo node “ranks 83rd among public Lightning nodes.” 
  • At the time of writing, it’s connected to 58 other channels, but this number changes daily.
  • Back to the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, the Chivo wallet remains at the top of the popularity list, “beating all the most popular social media apps like WhatsApp, TikTok, and Instagram.”
  • O bet you haven’t thought about this one, “By onboarding over 1.6 million users in just two weeks, Chivo is likely the most popular Lightning Network app in the world today.”

What About The Other Bitcoin Apps? Are They Popular In El Salvador?

Ok, granted. El Salvador’s government incentivizes the downloading of the Chivo wallet app with $30. That has to move the needle. However, when it comes to all the other Bitcoin apps, such an incentive doesn’t exist. How are they measuring up to other financial apps? 

El Salvador’s most popular apps for September 2021 | Source: Kevin Rooke

This infographic says it all:

  • “Salvadorans are already showing strong preference for Bitcoin apps over banking and remittance apps on a national scale,” as the graphic shows.
  • To put it in numbers, “9 and 13 of the top 20 apps on the respective app stores” are Bitcoin apps. And Chivo is at number one.
  • “Most of El Salvador’s banks and payment processors have user ratings of 2-4 stars,” that’s the traditional banking system for you.
  •  On the other hand, “Bitcoin related apps have user ratings of 3-5 stars.” Even though it’s still early, the facts are the facts. It should be noted that the Chivo app is at the lower end of that spectrum.

Related Reading | How Big Is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network? The Answer Will Surprise You

Besides that, Kevin Rooke identified a truth that might be obvious to some, but has to be said:

“The millions of Salvadorans that have already been onboarded to the Lightning Network aren’t Silicon Valley nerds or early tech enthusiasts. They’re regular people that are making a conscious choice to use the Lightning Network because it saves them time and money.”

And they don’t have to use the Chivo ecosystem if they don’t want to. That’s a fact.

Featured Image by Ray Aucott on Unsplash – Charts by TradingView

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Is BitGo Behind El Salvador’s Chivo Wallet? This Old School Mag Thinks So

Where did BitGo come from? In all of this time covering El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law, the name wasn’t in the picture. Now, all of a sudden, Forbes claims that BitGo’s technology is behind the controversial Chivo wallet. How and when did this happen? Or, more importantly, is this real news or a paid piece to take advantage of the “historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption.” 

Related Reading | NewsBTC Crypto Trading Course. For FREE.99

Not to be conspiratorial, but Forbes’ tone through this whole piece has a press-release-feel to it.

“For months, El Salvador has kept many of Chivo’s details under wraps with the nation’s 40-year-old president, Nayib Bukele, teasing the wallet’s launch on Twitter just last week. However, Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped cryptocurrency unicorn BitGo to provide Chivo’s wallet infrastructure and security platform, making the Palo Alto, Calif-based startup the nation’s exclusive hot-wallet provider in a historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption.”

What’s all this about “cryptocurrency unicorn BitGo” and “the nation’s exclusive hot-wallet provider in a historic moment”? Is this the appropriate vocabulary for a legacy media publication like this one? The most worrying sentence, however, is “Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped…” They’re not committing to anything here. It “appears” this way, but nothing is certain.

BTC price chart for 09/07/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
What Does BitGo Say About The Announcement?

Not El Salvador’s government, nor Strike commented on the Forbes piece. They did get a quote from Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, who said:

“Digital assets look so different from what we’ve seen with other types of money, and so people wonder about how [they] fit in, but this is an opportunity to build financial freedom for the people of El Salvador” says BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, speaking from his home in Silicon Valley on Saturday. “The ability to send money in a hurry on a Saturday night, when banks are closed, across the planet and at almost no fees, it’s hard to put into words how empowering that is, and what we’ll see in El Salvador is, people will start figuring it out.” 

Did Belshe confirm the news? Is BitGo behind the Chivo App? He talks about “an opportunity to build financial freedom for the people of El Salvador.” So yeah, assuming Belshe was talking about this specific rumor, he seems to confirm the news. Indirectly. In a non-comital way.

To make things worse, the article ends presenting BitGo as their own marketing material would:

“Founded in 2013, BitGo has grown into one of the biggest cryptocurrency wallet companies in the world, raising more than $70 million in funding from investors including…”

Let’s Remember, What Did Strike Say About The Subject?

Strike’s Jack Mallers has met with the Bukeles, announced El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption, and the company has an office at Bitcoin Beach. Everyone was assuming that the technology behind the Chivo wallet was going to be Strike’s. However, if we go back to the interview in which Mallers told the whole story, our sister site Bitcoinist quotes him saying:

“There’s no commercial agreement between Strike and the government of El Salvador.

“In fact, I advised and gave my opinion of the opposite. The economies of scale and network effects associated with open networks are so powerful. Just by plugging in to them you’re going to get the freemarket competition that every country would die for.”

Related Reading | Tomorrow, The Community Will Buy $30 In BTC To Support El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law

Did President Bukele take his advice and went with another company? Can we trust Forbes even if it sounds like a copy-and-pasted press release? Is BitGo’s technology behind the Chivo Wallet? We will know for sure very soon.

Featured Image by Chräcker Heller from Pixabay – Charts by TradingView

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Tomorrow, The Community Will Buy $30 In BTC To Support El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law

The day is here. In a few hours, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law goes into effect. We will have the first real-world example of a whole nation using the hardest money ever created as legal tender. And, how is the Bitcoin community celebrating? Stack sats, obviously. The order is for everyone to buy $30 worth of BTC to commemorate this glorious occasion. Will you participate?

Related Reading | The 411 On “Adopting Bitcoin,” A Lightning Network Conference in El Salvador

The intention is not to move the dial or pump the price. The amount is small enough to guarantee that, even if the event goes viral. Which it seems like it’s doing. The movement started humbly, with a Reddit post in the /r/Bitcoin community that asked a simple question. So… We all buying $30 worth of Bitcoin on Tuesday? At the time of writing, the idea has 8.9K upvotes and 2.2K commentaries. 

Among the comments, some went all-in. “I will buy $3000 tuesday to cover 99 others who arent able to pay.” Others explained away, “Its to show solidarity with our Bitcoin compatriots in El Salvador as they fully adopt Bitcoin as their currency.” And other rightfully criticized, “Sure. Lets just coordinate a 100 mil pump of BTC. Correct me if I’m wrong but this sounds greasy.”

And, sure enough, the idea to back El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law spread to other social networks.

Bitcoin Twitter Will Support El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law

The plebs work fast. As soon as the idea transcended Reddit and got to Bitcoin Twitter, the memes appeared. This piece of art mixes the classic comedy “Trading Places” with El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law, with gold bug Peter Schiff and Bitcoin hater Nouriel Roubini to achieve hilarious effects:

On the 7th of September #Bitcoin becomes legal tender in #ElSalvador.

Plebs and memers unite!! Like, retweet and buy #BTC on the 7th.#7SeptemberBuyBTC@Nayibbukele#LeyBitcoin#Memepool@MoscowMemetards@MemeFactoryTM#Memetards pic.twitter.com/u3rWWGbItr

— Sir William of Orange Pills (@OrangePillWilly) September 5, 2021

Even MicroStrategy’s CEO and notorious Bitcoin enthusiast joined the party. Michael Saylor did his part to support El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law and spread the word to the sizable audience that follows him.

This worries me more than anything. We are at major retracement levels for the price and Michael saylor is getting retail to buy. If the bear market starts this week I wouldn’t be surprised.

— Golde 🔜 EDCLV2021? (@all41and14alll) September 6, 2021

Of course, this raised suspicion. “Everyone needs to be aware that this could possibly be leading the sheep to their death.  Very nerve wracking these narratives are coming out before we hit the HUGE retracement levels,” said one commenter. “A hole. Letting retail buy exactly on the 70.2% retracement to dump on them huh,” said another. “If the bear market starts this week I wouldn’t be surprised,” predicted a third one. 

Are they on to something or are they missing something? Michael Saylor strongly stated that MicroStrategy is not looking to sell any of their BTC any time soon, but, people have lied before. Do you know what doesn’t lie, though? Bitcoin. If Michael Saylor and company sell on El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law’s day, people will know. The same thing will happen if they buy.

BTC price chart for 06/09/2021 on Oanda | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
The International Community Will Also Buy $30 Worth Of BTC

Here, we can see a Korean bitcoiner translating the order to support El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law and the community from that side of the world responding below. 

[6월24일 엘살바도르는 국민 1인당 30$어치 비트코인을 지급하기로 했습니다.]

이것을 기념하기위하여 300만명의 브라질 커뮤니티에서 다같이 30$를 구매하자고 시작한 이벤트입니다.

이것은 엘살바도르의 지원을 의미합니다. #bitcoin#ElSalvador https://t.co/2I9zZkWPRA pic.twitter.com/QD1ntWevRd

— ATOMIC⚡️ BITCOIN (@atomicBTC) September 6, 2021

It’s curious that the translated tweet, one of the first ones in that social network, talks about a Brazilian Bitcoin Community and that they’re doing it “remembering that Sep 7th is Brazil’s independence Day.” As far as we can tell, they link to the same /r/Bitcoin post we identified as the origin and almost all of the posts there are in English. 

Related Reading | Michael Saylor Brings The Thunder To Venezuelan Bitcoin-Only Podcast

It’s also curious that the Satoshi Nakamoney character keeps adding up to the story as it progresses, and ends up declaring.“To be clear: massive #bitcoin buy will happen at 3pm of El Salvador time zone.”

Can you think of anything else in the world bringing people together as much as #Bitcoin is right now?Anything even at any time in your life?

Have you ever felt such benevolence to strangers from different nations, religions and other affiliations as you do toward bitcoiners?

— Tomerrrr Strolight – Slayer of Lies (@TomerStrolight) September 6, 2021

Will this collective action pump the price as El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law goes into effect? Maybe the plebs can’t do it by themselves, but what about doing it with Michael Saylor’s help? Another fascinating activity to monitor tomorrow. Legal Tender day is here.

Featured Image: Bitcoin Day Flyer | Charts by TradingView/a>

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El Salvador Is Giving $30 In Bitcoin To Its Citizens

Ahead of the September 7 bitcoin law implementation date, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has unveiled a new government crypto app. The government-issued app, which is known as Chivo, will be used to distribute the bitcoins to citizens.

According to reports, every citizen that downloads and registers for the app are automatically eligible for the $30 bitcoin airdrop. The president has said that the move is in an effort to bolster the adoption of bitcoin across the country.

Related Reading | Crypto Isn’t Money, Annual Economic Report On Bitcoin

El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender when it announced it was doing so back in June. The announcement took place at the Bitcoin Conference held earlier in the year in Miami. Further, the president stated that it would be granting citizenships to individuals who invest 3 bitcoins into the country’s economy.

The plan was made public during a public address by the president last night.

Why A Government-Issued Wallet?

A simple answer to this question is logistics. The anonymity of bitcoin makes it so that people can create multiple wallets from other wallet providers. This would be a nightmare for the government to try to discern who was real or not, and who had already received their airdrops and was applying again. The government-issued wallet would ensure that the government can confirm that the users were actual citizens. And it will help to mitigate the likely issue of people trying to receive more than one airdrop.

It would also mean the adoption of a government crypto wallet. This could act as a central database for people using the coins.

bitcoin chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin back in green | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Just because it’s government-issued does not mean people have to leave their coins in the wallet. Once they get their $30, they can simply transfer it out to any wallet of their choice. But there will at least be a record that they had already received their airdrop.

The airdrop is estimated to take around $117 million. This is accounting for the country’s population and then for the population for the eligible ages for the airdrop.

El Salvador has a population of 6.5 million. With estimates that about 60% of that number is above the age of 14. This means that about 3.9 million people would be eligible for the airdrop. This brings the monetary estimate out to $117 million. This translates to around 3,440 bitcoins.

Adoption In El Salvador

President Bukele took his time in the address to explain why they were doing this. He brought up that they wanted to encourage the use of bitcoin by citizens. And what better way to do that than to give people some free bitcoin to spend?

According to the president, “What we are doing is encouraging the use of bitcoin and encouraging the use of the system. Which is going to generate the multiplication of money in the economy.”

Related Reading | Extreme Fear In Crypto Market, Is It Time To Buy The Blood In Bitcoin?

The argument for the adoption of bitcoin by the president has always been to protect the unbanked. About 70% of the citizens of El Salvador are reportedly unbanked. This means that over half of the population has no access to a proper bank account.

In response to the rising rumors that wages and pensions will be paid in bitcoin, President Bukele assured the nation that no such thing was going to happen. Wages and pensions will continue to be paid in U.S. dollars.

During the address, President Bukele also did a preview of the Chivo app. He showed the graphics and how easy it will be to use them.

The app Chivo is not yet released for use. But it will be available for android and iOS devices. And it will be compatible with other cryptocurrency wallets.

Featured image from The Independent, chart from TradingView.com