El Salvador, the first country to make the bold move of making Bitcoin a legal tender, finally saw its decision paying off as the world's largest crypto asset by trading volume continued to surge.
Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, spent around $120 million of the country's money on purchasing Bitcoin amid the flurry of criticism he received on both domestic and global fronts.
"After literally thousands of articles and hit pieces that ridiculed our supposed losses, all of which were calculated based on Bitcoin's market price at the time, with the current Bitcoin market price, if we were to sell our Bitcoin, we would not only recover 100% of our investment but also make a profit of $3,620,277," Bukele said in a tweet, which comes with a screenshot of nayibtracker.com–a website that monitors the country's Bitcoin portfolio.
Data from the website showed that El Salvador's Bitcoin portfolio has 2,764 BTC and earned $3.7 million profit Tuesday as the crypto asset traded above the $42,000 price level.
Bukele said that it has never been El Salvador's objective to sell its Bitcoin and while he confirmed that they are well aware the crypto asset's price will fluctuate, he underlined that it does not impact the country's long-term strategy.
The president of El Salvador also said, "it is important that the naysayers and the authors of those hit pieces take back their statements. The responsible thing to do would be for them to issue retractions, offer apologies, or, at the very least, acknowledge that El Salvador is now yielding a profit, just as they repeatedly reported that we were incurring losses," before adding, "If they consider themselves true journalists, they should report this new reality with the same intensity they reported the previous one."
El Salvador's #Bitcoin investments are in the black!
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) December 4, 2023
After literally thousands of articles and hit pieces that ridiculed our supposed losses, all of which were calculated based on #Bitcoin’s market price at the time...
With the current #Bitcoin market price, if we were to sell… pic.twitter.com/gvl2GfQMfb
Paolo Ardoino, the current Chief Technology Officer of the crypto exchange Bitfinex, praised El Salvador for its commitment to its Bitcoin Policy.
"The government of El Salvador presented its long-term vision for Bitcoin in 2021 and has stayed resolute in its policy to acquire Bitcoin and legislate it as legal tender, despite almost unprecedented criticism domestically and internationally," the CTO said in a note sent to International Business Times.
"This is because it recognizes the opportunity that Bitcoin offers in delivering financial freedom to the people of the country. It has also acknowledged that it understands that it is a volatile asset but its investment in Bitcoin is recognition that it is also a secure, non-inflationary asset that has almost no peer in the financial markets," Ardoino added.
"The fact that all of El Salvador's Bitcoin investments are now profitable are vindication of that policy and further evidence that it was a wise decision from which El Salvador will reap the benefits in the future," the crypto executive said.
Bitcoin was trading in the green zone at $43,937.37 as of 12:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday with a 24-hour trading volume up by 55.09% at $41.7 billion.
BTC's price action represented a 3.72% increase in the past 24 hours and a 15.8% gain over the last seven days.
Data from CoinMarketCap showed that Bitcoin's circulating supply currently stands at 19.56M BTC with its value continuously climbing by 3.79% at a $859.57 billion market cap.
