A supermajority of the El Salvadoran legislature voted to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
In an early Wednesday vote, a supermajority of the nation’s legislature voted in favor of President Nayib Bukele’s proposal for the Latin American nation to adopt bitcoin. The president intends to sign later tonight or early in the morning. Sixty-two members of the legislature voted in favor of the bill, with 19 opposed and three abstentions.
The bill will mandate all businesses to accept bitcoin for goods or services, but the government will act as a backstop for entities that aren’t willing to take on the risk of a volatile cryptocurrency.
A trust that the government will set up at the Development Bank of El Salvador to instantly convert bitcoin to U.S. dollars will assume merchants’ risk, he said. It will hold about $150 million in dollars in the trust fund. The Development Bank’s trust fund would sell some of the bitcoin it receives for dollars to replenish the fund.
Government officials from El Salvador will meet with the International Monetary Fund in the coming days to discuss the plan.
