“Bitcoin Is Inevitable” Proves President Bukele As El Salvador Pays $800M Bond In Full

Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, has taken a swipe at critics for their smear campaigns particularly aimed at discrediting his country’s ability to meet its debt obligations after its Bitcoin stash value fell in the red.

In a thread of tweets Tuesday, the bitcoin bull condemned the so-called big media, financial analysts and the risk rating agencies for “shamelessly lying” to the world that El Salvador was broke and was going to default on its debts. Bukele’s outburst comes after his administration completed paying investors holding a Eurobond with a maturity of January 24, 2023.

“In the past year, almost every legacy international news outlet said that because of our “Bitcoin bet”, El Salvador was going to default on its debt by January 2023 (since we had an 800-million-dollar bond maturing today). Literally, hundreds of articles,” wrote Bukele. 

“Well, we just paid in full, 800 million dollars plus interest,” he added.

Since assuming office in 2019, the former mayor of San Salvador has come under heavy criticism, especially for his aggressive policies. However, from fighting corruption after campaigning on the slogan “There’s enough money when no one steals” to restoring law and order in the once crime-plagued Central American nation, his tactics endeared him to many in his country.

Nevertheless, some critics, especially international financial institutions, fell out with the Bukele administration further following the decision to make Bitcoin a legal tender in 2021. On several occasions, the World bank, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), urged El Salvador to scale back its push for Bitcoin as legal tender, noting that the country risked being cut off by international financiers.

Those warnings were further echoed by mainstream media, which devoted so much time and space to El Salvaldor’s economic initiatives, especially after last year’s crypto market crash.

Last July, Bukele hit out at the New York Times after the newspaper published an article titled “It’s clear they’re afraid, Bitcoin is inevitable”, which seemed to reprove El Salvador’s Bitcoin agenda.

“It’s clear they’re afraid Bitcoin is inevitable. By the way, they say we’re heading to default. Will they publish an apology once we pay everything on time?” Bukele said at the time.

That said, the Bukele administration has remained unswayed by naysayers, promising to continue pushing its agendas and living by its commitments and responsibility to pay its debts and improve the livelihoods of its citizens.