El Salvador’s President Went All in on Bitcoin. Then It Tanked | Hacker News Reader

El Salvador’s President Went All in on Bitcoin. Then It Tanked

wsj.com

Very misleading. If you're solely looking at the price, it was on June 8th 2021 that El Salvador Legislative Assembly voted to make Bitcoin legal tender [1].

The price of Bitcoin on June 8th had a intraday low of $31,114.44 USD [2]. The price of Bitcoin as I write this comment is $30,144.71 USD[2].

Yes, its down slightly since they signed it into law, but hardly tanked.

Sure the price of Bitcoin went a lot higher AFTER they decided to use it as legal currency, but the headline is very misleading.

[1] https://www.asamblea.gob.sv/node/11282

[2] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/historical-data... (pick June 7-8 2021)

They brought multiple tranches when the price was much higher. I belive they are down by atleast 20% despite buying the dip multiple times.

And more to the point, Bukele's shenanigans have signalled to the world that El Salvador's government can't be trusted to follow responsible financial policies. Which is why yeilds on this bonds have spiked and the country is finding it impossible to borrow.

Only in clown world is stacking hard currency “shenanigans” and borrowing unlimited billions from IMF (always with strings to keep them poor) is “responsible”.

Cryptocurrency is not hard currency. Outside of failed states like El Salvador, it isn't backed by any military force or taxing authority. It's just like Monopoly money or something.

The very fact that a country needs an IMF bailout means that its economic policies were not working.

Governments borrow to fund revenue deficits. What exactly does hodling a highly volatile asset that generates no cash flow acomplish?

„In macroeconomics, hard currency, safe-haven currency, or strong currency is any globally traded currency that serves as a reliable and stable store of value.“

I don't understand. The overall purchase was less than 100 mil. Yes, a large amount but for a country that should be very manageable and in theory it still has a possibility of gaining.

I agree it's too early to make it a country's currency since it's too easy to manipulate and he has no control over it but it's a work in progress. He has years to make it work for the country.

How is this any more newsworthy than netflix investors getting wiped out?

Because any negative news on crypto is automatically HN-worthy.

Because El Salvador is a country that is in danger of defaulting on its debt. Netflix is just a company.

How is being down a little bit on a small Bitcoin investment making it any more in danger of default?

The problem with fake news is it sounds real.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/bonds/el-salvador-b...

The government is issuing Bitcoin-backed bonds. Subsequently the market has sold off El Salvador’s 10Y traditional bonds to a level that increases the yield to 24%, representing the very high amount of risk of default the market is assigning to El Salvador. Is that all because of the Bitcoin investment or a more general distrust that the government is making sustainable moves? Hard to say.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com