On February 14, 2023, Milena Mayorga, Salvadoran ambassador to the United States, announced that her country is considering opening a second bitcoin embassy in the Lone Star State. Mayorga said Texas is “our new ally” and the goal is to expand “commercial and economic exchange projects.”
Ambassador Milena Mayorga promotes growing relations between El Salvador and Texas
This week, Milena Mayorga, Salvadoran ambassador to the United States, discussed her recent meeting with Texas Secretary of State Joe Esparza. Mayorga stated that government officials were considering the possibility of opening a second bitcoin embassy in the state. She noted that discussions had already taken place with authorities from Lugano, Switzerland about a similar bitcoin embassy concept.
“The State of Texas, our new ally,” Mayorga tweeted. “In my meeting with the Deputy Secretary of the Government of Texas, Joe Esparza … we discussed the opening of the second one [bitcoin] embassy, and expansion of commercial and economic exchange projects.”
The Salvadoran ambassador’s proposal comes after El Salvador’s approval of the Digital Assets Issuance Law in January 2023 and a recent mission statement on El Salvador’s economy from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF noted that El Salvador had managed to avoid cryptocurrency-related risks due to the slow and lukewarm adoption of bitcoin in the country. This development also follows comments by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele regarding disinformation in the media.
El Salvador’s finance minister, Alejandro Zelaya, took to Twitter to refute claims by some national and international media, tweeting: “El Salvador has met its debt obligations. We announce that we have today completed the payment of the 2023 Note for $800 million, plus interest.”
The Salvadoran ambassador, Mayorga, noted in his own Twitter thread that Texas Secretary of State Joe Esparza had expressed a positive view of relations between El Salvador and Texas in terms of commercial and economic exchange, with the two entities having exchanged $1,244,636,983 in 2022.
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alejandro zelaya, Bitcoin adoption, Bitcoin embassy, blockchain technology, commercial exchange, cross-border transactions, crypto regulation, cryptocurrency, currency risk, debt obligations, decentralized finance, digital assets, digital asset issuance law, disinformation, financial exchange, financial projects, El Salvador , financial sector , government officials , IMF mission statement , International Monetary Fund , Joe Esparza , Latin America , Lugano , Media , Milena Mayorga , Nayib Bukele , peer-to-peer transactions , slow adoption , Switzerland , Texas
Will the potential opening of a second bitcoin embassy in Texas further strengthen the relationship between El Salvador and the Lone Star State, and potentially increase the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the region? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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