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El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure

(www.economist.com)
151 points jcartw | 3 comments | 09 Mar 25 21:58 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Jimmc414 ◴[10 Mar 25 00:40 UTC] No.43315589[source]▶
El Salvador invested approximately $269.74 million to acquire 5,900 bitcoins ($595 million) and secure $1.4 billion in IMF loans. I hope they can recover from this failure.
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1. ramchip ◴[10 Mar 25 00:59 UTC] No.43315732[source]▶
Did you read the article?

> Moreover, the policy cost $375m in all—from the Chivo rollout, subsidised transaction fees, bitcoin ATMs and more—according to Moody’s, a rating agency. That far exceeds the profits on bitcoin holdings, which could still evaporate. By delaying an IMF deal, the crypto experiment kept El Salvador's risk premium high.

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2. toomim ◴[10 Mar 25 01:08 UTC] No.43315797[source]▶
I don't believe el salvador spent $375m on those things. I could believe that Chivo spent their VC money on that.
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3. ◴[10 Mar 25 04:32 UTC] No.43317039[source]▶