El Salvador’s Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya has sparked criticism of the investments his country has made in bitcoin through the actions of President Naib Bukele. Zelaya stated that there was no loss because the bitcoins purchased – about 2,300BTC – were not sold. He also identified some media reports on the issue as “biased reporting.”
El Salvador Dismisses Bitcoin Losses
El Salvador’s government has been criticized by President Nayib Bukele for betting on Bitcoin, buying over 2,300BTCto the national treasury. Payments. Alejandro Zelaya, El Salvador’s Minister of Finance, has minimized the losses incurred by the country as a result of these investments, saying that in the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal.
they are making a big deal about our bitcoin strategy. They estimate that we lost $40 million, but that’s because we didn’t sell the coins, we didn’t get rid of them.
In a previous interview, Zelaya also stated that these coins they purchased will not be sold at a loss and that they intend to wait until the price reaches a higher number.
Biased Media Coverage
El Salvador’s Finance Minister complained about media coverage on the issue, noting that some media outlets are biased in their reporting because of the position they have on bitcoin. Celaya named several outlets, declaring.
I even saw Deutsche Welle. With all due respect, I saw biased reporting. It said that El Salvador is dragged down by a $40 million financial risk. Oh my God!!! Our general budget is almost $80 million; $40 million is not even 0.5% of our budget.
But for Celaya, this is evidence of the antipathy that some of these media outlets have for bitcoin, which is also affecting El Salvador, the country that first adopted it as legal tender.
Even with this current unrealized loss of bitcoin investments, Salvadorans have mostly favorable ratings of their president, with two recent polls conducted by different national universities showing the Bucherer administration scoring over 8 out of 10. Some institutions are concerned about the lack of transparency with which these investments are carried out directly by Bukkele.
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