El Salvador Embraces Bitcoin
Salvadorans, Rejoice. Free Bitcoin for All!
by Bogdan Giulvezan
As most of you probably know by now, a bill was recently passed in El Salvador, giving Bitcoin the status of legal tender in the country. The law will come into effect in September and all businesses will have to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, alongside the US Dollar.
Today, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced during a public address that every adult citizen will receive an airdrop of $30 worth of Bitcoin. The gift will be received upon registering on the newly presented Bitcoin wallet Chivo (which translates to “cool” in Salvadoran slang).
The President also demonstrated step-by-step how to use the wallet, on national television and mentioned that Chivo will not use any mobile data, meaning that users will not have to pay for a cell plan: “The wallet app will even work anywhere with a cell connection, and you won’t have to have a cell plan for the app.”
As part of the massive Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador, U.S. company Athena plans to install 1,500 Bitcoin ATMs, which means that accessing BTC will get a lot easier in the country. Currently, there are only two such machines in El Salvador and the rollout will begin with just a few dozen machines, in order to establish a business model.
Speaking to Reuters, Matias Goldenhörn (Athena’s Latin America director) said that President Bukele “presented us with a tough challenge of 1,500 ATMs, we will go for that, but in phases. We are a private company and we want to ensure that our development in the country is sustainable.”
Technical Outlook – BTC/USD
At the time of writing Bitcoin is trading at $34,160, but earlier this week, it dropped to a low of $28,600 according to TradingView charts. Such a low was last encountered on the 4th of January, 2021.
Since May 19th, the pair has been stuck inside the $30K – $40K range, with only brief moments of “escaping” the said range. It is now clear that both levels are strong support and resistance, respectively, which means that once a true breakout occurs, price is likely to travel in that direction for an extended period.
BTC is now testing a bearish trend line, which is not of major importance, but nonetheless, it may offer some clues about future movement because a break would be considered a minor but much-needed victory for the bulls, while a bounce would suggest that the pair will revisit $30,000.
