Is Nayib Bukele Losing Faith in BTC?

Is Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, losing hope in bitcoin? The man has long been one of the biggest supporters of the world’s number one digital currency by market cap, but a recent tweet suggests that his faith in the asset is beginning to dwindle.

Nayib Bukele Appears Downtrodden About Bitcoin

The digital currency has lost a lot of value in recent weeks. The currency was trading at an all-time high of roughly $68,000 per unit just seven or eight months ago, though at the time of writing, the currency is slightly under the $20,000 mark. This means bitcoin has lost more than 70 percent of its value, and the asset is experiencing one of its biggest downfalls.

Bukele appears to be feeling the heat right about now. As the president of El Salvador, Bukele announced that his country would be the first to make the digital currency legal tender, doing so nearly a year ago in September of 2021. This ultimately caused many waves in the financial industry as El Salvador struggled to relieve itself of its dependence on USD.

His country has purchased about $105 million in BTC. With the recent tanking of the asset’s price, that number has fallen to about $40 million, meaning the nation has seen its crypto stash dump more than 50 percent of its value. Not long ago, a bitcoin publication pointed this out, to which Bukele responded on Twitter:

You’re telling me we should buy more #BTC?

The message appeared somewhat incredulous, making many speculate as to whether Bukele has lost his interest or taste in crypto. If he has, his finance minister Alejandro Zelaya has done a good job of covering for him and his true feelings. In a recent interview, Zelaya stated that the nation’s leaders aren’t too worried about the bitcoin crash given that they haven’t sold any bitcoin yet, so the value is still there and they’re simply waiting for the price to move back up.

Zelaya commented:

When they tell me that El Salvador’s budgetary risk has increased because of the supposed loss, that loss doesn’t exist. That must be made clear because we have not sold… This doesn’t even represent 0.5 percent of our budget.

He has also rejected a plea from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to drop bitcoin as a legal tender entity, stating:

No international organization is going to make us do anything. Anything at all.

The World Bank Turned Its Back on El Salvador

El Salvador has faced quite a bit of opposition from global financial enterprises that have looked down on its leaders for accepting bitcoin in such a way.

The World Bank, for example, was asked to coax the country through its bitcoin-based transition, though the organization said “no” given that the asset was too volatile to take seriously in its mind.

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