El Salvador has voted to pass a bill which paves the way for the issuing of President Nayib Bukele’s bitcoin bonds.
The plan, which was announced in November 2021, would entail El Salvador issuing $1 billion in bonds on Blockstream's Liquid Network, a federated Bitcoin sidechain. The goal of the bond issuance would be to invest half of the money into bitcoin, and the other half into infrastructure necessary to build out the bitcoin industry in the Central American country. The bonds, according to the statement at the time, would yield 6.5% and enable a fast-track for investors to acquire citizenship in the country.
Exactly one year after the announcement of the plan, the bill that was voted on today was introduced by El Salvador’s Minister of the Economy Maria Luisa Hayem Brevé to the country’s legislative assembly as the next step towards this plan. With today’s approval, the country is much closer to making the bitcoin bonds a reality.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office released a statement in response to the vote that read in part, “Today El Salvador builds on our first-mover advantage by passing landmark legislation establishing a legal framework for all digital assets that are not bitcoin. The law also paves the way for the volcano bonds which we will soon begin issuing.”
In a statement to Bitcoin Magazine, Max Keiser, a Bitcoin educator and advocate who has also been a major proponent for El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin since the process began, states that he believes “This is one of the most important milestones yet. Making Bitcoin legal tender in September, 2021 put El Salvador on the global financial map. This new law furthers the mission of President Bukele by establishing a foundation for a new global, digital securities layer built on Bitcoin.”
