Why El Salvador Is Establishing a ‘National Bitcoin Office’
El Salvador has announced that all Bitcoin-related projects, emerging in the country, will now be under the supervision of a newly established organization. The government of the central American state has announced the creation of the ‘National Office of Bitcoin’, or ONBTC, which will serve as an administrative unit dedicated to monitoring local crypto projects in the region. This development comes as El Salvador’s BTC-related activities face scrutiny due to the withholding of related information. The government published an official post on LinkedIn, explaining more details on the matter and how the newly created ONTBC will work in the country.
The creation of ONBTC was signed by Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador. Bukele announced last year that El Salvador would be the first in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender nationwide.
“The purpose of ONBTC which will be to design, diagnose, organize, organize, coordinate, track, measure, analyze, and evaluate plans, programs and projects related to Bitcoin for the development of the country’s economy. It will also be able to cooperate with other countries when needed, on matters related to BTC,” LinkedIn posts noted by Torres Legal El Salvador.
Presenting crypto education programs to local people and organizing BTC related partnership meetings for President Bukele will also be part of ONBTC’s responsibilities.
All public institutions related to Bitcoin will have to cooperate with ONBTC to create profitable and safe products and services necessary for the expansion of crypto.
In the coming days, Bukele will finalize the director of this organization who will include important members in the group.
“One of the tasks of the Office of Bitcoin is to coordinate actions related to the creation of appropriate policies on Bitcoin and the blockchain determined by the Office of the President in writing short-term, medium-term, and long-term economic and educational programs in cooperation with relevant institutions,” added the document.
El Salvador’s BTC holdings fell sharply when the crypto market collapsed after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
The current price of BTC is stuck at the $16,111 mark (roughly Rs. 13 lakh). Exactly one year ago in November 2021, BTC had touched the last high of 68,000 dollars (roughly Rs. 55 lakh).
Earlier this month, El Salvador’s state bank Banco de Desarrollo de El Salvador (BANDESAL) refused to share details of the country’s current BTC holdings. The information was requested by ALAC El Salvador – the non-governmental anti-corruption bureau. That secrecy surrounding its BTC assets was seen as a way for its government to protect itself from criticism by perhaps exposing its public to greater financial risks.
It is estimated that El Salvador had a total of 2,301 BTC as of September this year. In a year’s time, the value of these BTC holdings has dropped significantly from $103.9 million (about Rs. 850 crore) to about $45 million (about Rs. 370 crore).
Last week, Bukele announced that El Salvador would buy one Bitcoin every day as a move to support the crypto industry amid the ongoing downturn.
