El Salvador rejects IMF’s warning on dangers of Bitcoin

El Salvador has rejected the recommendation by the International Monetary Fund to dissolve Bitcoin as a legal tender in the country. Treasury Minister Alejandro Zelaya responded in a television interview and said that “no international organisation is going to make us do anything, anything at all.”

Minister Zelaya said that the use of Bitcoin by the nation is an issue of “sovereignty.”

“Countries are sovereign nations and they take sovereign decisions about public policy,” Zelaya said.

The response came after the IMF recommended El Salvador significantly strengthen its regulation of the new crypto payment ecosystem. It “urges the authorities to narrow the scope of the Bitcoin Law by removing Bitcoin’s legal tender status,” according to a recent report. 

“In the near-term, the actual costs of implementing Chivo and operationalising the Bitcoin law exceed potential benefits,” the report also suggested.