El Salvador’s government repaid $800 million in bonds. Nayib Bukele mocks media attacking him
Despite many reports of potential bankruptcy in the state of El Salvador, the country managed to pay off bonds for this year, which amounted to 800 million dollars, on time. Thus, the country’s president – Nayib Bukele – played on the nose of the media, which criticized him for investing millions in bitcoin.
El Salvador pays by bonds
On January 23, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, the world’s most popular political supporter of bitcoin, tweeted that his government had repaid the $800 million bond plus interest.
Many people and media reported on El Salvador’s alleged economic problems and criticized its leaders for investing government capital in bitcoin. Remember that the first cryptocurrency was recognized as legal tender in this country in September 2021.
In the past year, almost all the senior international news channels said that because of our “#Bitcoins bet,” El Salvador would default on its debt in January 2023 (because we had an $800 million bond maturing today).
Literally, hundreds of articles https://t.co/rEiK7K13U4
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) 24 January 2023
In the published post, Bukele mentions the media campaign against him and his government due to the regular purchase of bitcoin. In particular, he referred to a publication in The New York Times published in July 2021. It said that El Salvador’s decision to invest in bitcoin at a macro-economic level could negatively affect the state budget, making it unable to repay its debt. It turns out the media was wrong in this case. In addition, Bukele pointed out that the bond was settled without the need to conclude an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao congratulated the president on the successful transaction. The above was also confirmed by Alejandro Zelaya, Minister of Finance of El Salvador. The politician conveyed this information in a rather sarcastic tone with the following words:
Unfortunately, as part of a disinformation campaign by some national and international media, we announce that as of this date we have completed the repayment of the 2023 bonds in the amount of USD 800 million with interest.
El Salvador fulfills its debt obligations.
Para mala suerte de la campaigna de disinformación de algunos medios nacionales e internacionales, anunciamos que este día hemos completado el pago del Bono 2023 por $800 millionos, mores intereses. https://t.co/oraCJygUZy
— Alejandro Zelaya 🇸🇻 (@AlejandroZelay9) 24 January 2023
The president’s press office told Reuters that the government of El Salvador made a transfer for the bonds, which totaled $604.1 million. On top of that, there is $23.4 million in interest. Earlier, in 2022, the institution made transfers in two rounds.
El Salvador is not losing faith in BTC
On September 7, 2021, it recognized bitcoin as legal tender, thus becoming the first country in history to take this step. After this, the government of the country regularly bought the first cryptocurrency. He currently owns 2,381 BTC, for which he spent about $103 million.
In early January, there were also reports that the government of El Salvador passed a key law for the cryptocurrency sector. The new legislation sets out the legal framework for the Bitcoin government bond project, which is known as the “Volcano Bond”. We wrote more about the topic of this project here.
