El Salvador lawmakers have passed a new Bitcoin law to comply with a $1.4 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
El Salvador‘s Congress approved the bill just minutes after President Nayib Bukele sent in the legislation on Wednesday, January 29. The Congress is dominated by lawmakers from Bukele’s New Ideas Party.
El Salvador government struck a $1.4 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December, with the agency requiring the Bukele’s government to scale back its involvement in Bitcoin.
The reform, which received 55 votes in favor and only two against, makes it voluntary for businesses to accept Bitcoin as payment. Previously, businesses were legally required to accept Bitcoin as payment.
In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to make the cryptocurrency legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar, which it adopted two decades earlier. The move attracted global attention and transformed Bitcoin into one of Bitcoin’s most prominent backers.
Before the vote, ruling party lawmaker Elisa Rosales framed the reform as needed to guarantee Bitcoin’s “permanence as legal tender” while facilitating its “practical implementation.”
El Salvador currently holds 6,049 BTC worth around $633 million, according to the Bitcoin Office official tracker. The portfolio has made a 127% profit with an average purchase price of $46,000 per bitcoin.
