Pound crash: Bitcoin-loving president of El Salvador mocks Bank of England
The president of El Salvador has responded to earlier criticism from the Bank of England about his country’s bitcoin experiment by mocking the falling price of the pound.
Britain’s central bank was forced to take emergency action on Monday after the pound crashed to a record low against the US dollar in the wake of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.
The bank issued a statement warning that it “would not hesitate to change interest rates by as much as necessary” to combat rising inflation.
Nayib Bukele, who introduced the Bitcoin law to the Central American country in 2021, has posted a message to Twitter mentioning the official Bank of England account, writing “told you” in reference to an earlier tweet warning that the bank was “printing money out of thin air”.
Last year, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey expressed concern about El Salvador embracing cryptocurrency, claiming it would have a negative effect on the country’s economy.
“It worries me that a country would choose it as its national currency,” Bailey said at Cambridge University’s student union in November. “What would worry me most of all is: do the citizens of El Salvador understand the nature and volatility of the currency they have?”
President Bukele also faced criticism from the International Monetary Fund after becoming the first country in the world to introduce bitcoin as legal tender.
The IMF asked El Salvador to drop bitcoin as its official currency, citing risks regarding “financial stability, financial integrity and consumer protection” due to the cryptocurrency’s price volatility.
El Salvador’s finance minister, Alejandro Zelaya, rejected the request, telling local media: “No international organization is going to make us do anything, anything at all.”
Earlier this month, President Bukele announced his bid for re-election when his current term ends in 2024, despite laws that prohibit presidents from serving consecutive terms.
“Developed countries have re-elections, and thanks to the new configuration of the democratic institution in our country, now El Salvador will too,” he said in a live stream event on Independence Day.
Other prominent figures in the crypto space have also criticized the monetary policies of leading economies that have contributed to volatility and devaluation of fiat currencies.
Former MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor noted that the euro, pound and yen have all fallen about 20 percent against the dollar over the past year, while the dollar has fallen more than 60 percent against bitcoin the last four years.
