I can't blame El Salvador for trying to get rich...They acted like a retail investor. The crash is painful.
That being said 50% crash on "its currency" may not be uncommon. I believe Turkey's currency has had a similar devaluation.
That being said 50% crash on "its currency" may not be uncommon. I believe Turkey's currency has had a similar devaluation.
It had never happened in El Salvador though. The USD and the former currency were stable for decades.
The basic deal is that Bitfinex owns both Blockstream and Tether and uses the later to pump the former.
Tether needs a nation state's help to look legitimate. So Tether printed and sold fresh USDT to El Salvador for $0.25 to the dollar (or even cheaper). El Salvador used the USDT to buy Bitcoin and then issued goveerment bonds backed by thoes Bitcoin.
You might think Tether is losing selling USDT for $0.25, but remember this is not actaully $1 USD, this is $1 USDT. Tether benefits more from increasing money velocity and supply more than they lose by inflating their scam token. Blockstream's Adam Back helps promote Tether and maintain the Bitcoin Core GitHub repo to make sure BTC is unusable as peer-to-peer digital cash which pushes people to stable coins and competing networks, like Blockstream's own "Liquid, lBTC" token.
Not what you'd expect from the most convincing candidate of Satoshi Nakamoto's true identity [1].
[1] https://chainbulletin.com/the-unmasking-satoshi-aftermath/