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El Salvador Repays Its $800 Million Bond, President Bukele Tackles Critics
El Salvador has repaid an $800 million bond on the same day, with its president taking a dig at the critics who claimed the government would default because of its decision to make Bitcoin legal tender.
On Tuesday, January 24th, the El Salvadorian President, Nayib Bukele, announced that the Central American nation had completely repaid its $800 million bond with interest set to mature on the same day.
The country’s Finance Minister, Alejandro Zelaya, also confirmed the repayment on his Twitter account. The news is significant for El Salvador as the country’s credit ratings had been downgraded to levels reflecting a substantial risk of default.
In September 2021, El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender, which drew significant criticism from international financial agencies. The criticisms further intensified as the country purchased more Bitcoin, and the asset price plummeted.
Taking to Twitter to tackle the critics, President Bukele said there were hundreds of articles from “almost every legacy international news outlet” saying that because “of our ‘bitcoin bet,’ El Salvador was going to default on its debt by January 2023.” He wrote:
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They all said that without striking an @IMFNews deal, we were going to be unable to pay our 2023 bond because our “#Bitcoin losses”.I have the receipts… https://t.co/exbQxjdEj4https://t.co/1Hl4pRoBkhhttps://t.co/xcMehNGPZMhttps://t.co/gVK8Jlp3Vqhttps://t.co/qpyz1tDd00— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) January 24, 2023
However, since El Salvador successfully repaid its debt, he has found only one article from a Colombian newspaper that published news. He also called out the “economic geniuses” who said El Salvador was going broke but hasn’t received a response.
The comments from the international community have not slowed down El Salvador. The country now holds 2,516 BTC and has educated over 10,000 students in 2022 about Bitcoin.
The president’s previous attack on mainstream media is covered in:
Nayib Bukele Taunts Bloomberg for One-Sided Story on El Salvador
Read about the nation’s Bitcoin program below:
El Salvador Drives for Wider Bitcoin Adoption, Educates 10,000 Students About the Asset
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