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El Salvador residents protest one week before the controversial Bitcoin Law takes effect.

Fresh protests have broken out as Salvadorians say no to BTC, one week before the controversial Bitcoin Law takes effect.
Fresh protests have broken out as Salvadorians say no to BTC, one week before the controversial Bitcoin Law takes effect.

When President Nayib Bukele declared to the world that he was making BTC legal tender, he expected to be hailed as a visionary, and he was. Now, fresh protests have broken out as Salvadorians say no to BTC, one week before the controversial Bitcoin Law takes effect. There has been pushback in the country against the bitcoin law from the President’s opponents and a section of people.

Protests break out against the bitcoin law in El Salvador.

Salvadorians took to the streets waving placards and signs with messages that depicted their aversion to BTC becoming legal tender in their country. “No al lavado de dinero corrupto (no to laundering corrupt money),” one of them read. Nearly three months since the Salvadorian parliament – where the President’s political party holds an overwhelming majority of seats – voted to make the leading cryptocurrency bitcoin an optional legal tender, it has been nothing but opposition to the law. On the other hand, the crypto community has hailed President Nayib Bukele as a visionary.

Global financial regulators have also voiced their concerns.

Global financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have also voiced their concerns regarding the controversial bitcoin law. The World Bank even refused to help El Salvador’s government with the implementation of the Bitcoin Law. Several economists have also expressed great concern with the move, with revered economist Steve Hanke calling the President and his accomplices “stupid” for the decision. Bukele had called Hanke a “boomer” for his opinion on the bitcoin law. Ricardo Castaneda, a local economist, told the Guardian, “The law was adopted extremely quickly without a technical study or a public debate.”

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