President
Nayib Bukele of El Salvador recently announced that the country is setting up 200 automated teller machines (ATMs) and 50 staffed kiosks to facilitate exchanges of the cyrptocurrency bitcoin into US dollars for withdrawal as cash. All transactions will be conducted through the government’s cryptocurrency app, Chivo, with no transaction fees. This announcement comes as El Salvador is adopting bitcoin as legal tender as of September 7. Among the motivations for encouraging the use of bitcoin is to reduce the cost of remittances sent to individuals in El Salvador from other countries.
By Divya Deshmukh, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
TheStreet news article
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/el-salvador-atms-kiosks-bitcoin
Additional news on El Salvador
https://www.microcapital.org/?s=salvador
Did you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
Similar Posts:
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Ualá App Offers Saving Account Paying 9% Interest in Mexico
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Stanbic Bank Uganda, IFAD Seek to Reduce Costs of Remittances via FlexiPay E-wallet, Encourage Adoption via SACCOs
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Women’s World Banking Offering 5-month Leadership Program for Regulators
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: SBFC Raises $18m from Amansa for On-lending to Small Businesses, Households in India
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: She WINS Africa Program to Empower Women-led Startups
