For Greg King, CEO of Osprey Funds, Bitcoin is moving forward with more vigor than it had 12 years ago, so it will not be surprising if more nations begin to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, as announced by the president of El Salvador a few days ago.
During his participación on CNBC's ETF Edge, Greg king, CEO of Osprey Funds, an investment fund that facilitates access to cryptocurrencies, and who runs the “Osprey Bitcoin Trust (OBTC)”, he noted that the statement of Nayib Bukele, the current president of El Salvador, to make Bitcoin his legal tender, is a huge indicator of acceptance for cryptocurrency in the world.
King said that El Salvador's intentions are causing Bitcoin to continue its forward movement, advancing with more strength and vigor than it had 12 years ago, when the cryptocurrency was first launched on the market.
“We wouldn’t be surprised to see states and central banks start thinking about adding bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies to their balance sheets”, King said.
For the investment expert, El Salvador will be the first sovereign nation in the world to openly accept bitcoin as legal tender, replacing the US dollar which is currently the country’s legal tender since 2001. However, the Central American nation will not be the last to make this decision, as King foresees that many more countries and central banks, which have historically depended on the dollar, will begin to accept and integrate bitcoin into their balance sheets, to the point of also making the cryptocurrency their legal tender.
In April, authorities in Bequia, a paradise island in the Caribbean, announced that Bitcoin would be its main official currency, so all its businesses and shops were being authorized to accept the cryptocurrency as a means of payment. Bequia was the first region in the world to fully adopt Bitcoin as its main commercial currency. Now Panama, Paraguay, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina are also considering jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon and incorporating the cryptocurrency into their financial systems.
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More nations jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon
Following the announcement by the President of El Salvador, legislators from other parts of the world, specifically from Latin America, have revealed their intentions to present proposals to modify the current legislation of their countries to adopt bitcoin as legal tender and integrate it into their financial systems.
Until now, Gabriel silva, deputy of Panama and Carlos Rejala, a Paraguayan congressman, revealed via Twitter that they are preparing to present new proposals that would allow the adoption of Bitcoin and digital assets.
In addition to considering adopting Bitcoin as a currency, the Panamanian congressman also noted that the country will consider eliminating the tax levied on profits in it. Eduardo Murat Hinojosa, a senator from Mexico, also stated that the country will present a proposal to encourage the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Fabio Ostermann from Brazil and Francisco Sánchez from Argentina also made posts showing their sympathy towards Bitcoin, with laser eyes and tagging the cryptocurrency on their Twitter accounts.
“Things are looking very optimistic for bitcoin”
Recent tweets showing support from more Latin American countries towards Bitcoin show that the general sentiment that encompasses the entire crypto community is quite optimistic.
According to King, it is enough to see the presentations, the debates and the great participation that took place at the Bitcoin 2021, the world's largest crypto conference, which was held last weekend in Miami, United States, and which, despite the health conditions experienced due to the Covid pandemic, brought together more than 12.000 people between the ages of 25 and 40.
For the CEO of Osprey Funds, things look very optimistic for bitcoin, despite the recent drop in value in the markets.
For its part, Marc Lasry, CEO of Avenue Capital Group, another major investment fund in the United States and Europe, noted that there is a high probability that more and more people, investors and governments will continue to adopt and use bitcoin in the future, so the general trend is that the growth of the cryptocurrency will continue in the long term.
“The likelihood of more and more people continuing to use bitcoin will continue to rise. It has happened a little faster than I thought.”
Lasry noted that Bitcoin's growth has been greater than expected by many experts, including himself, since the cryptocurrency has only been on the market for 12 years.
To give some perspective, Google y AmazonIt took Bitcoin, two of the largest and most important companies in the world, more than 22 years, on average, to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion; something that Bitcoin achieved in 12 years of history.
“I should have bought a lot more”, says Lasry, referring to the incredible value that bitcoin has achieved in recent years, which has made it a long-term reserve asset.
Another 12% drop
In the last few hours, the value of Bitcoin fell by another 12%, reaching a value of $31.700 per unit. The drop may be related to the recent operations by the US authorities, which confiscated a large part of the cryptocurrencies that Colonial pipeline paid the hacker group DarkSide as a ransom for the restoration of its services.
The largest oil pipeline company in the United States was the victim of a cyberattack that encrypted its systems, forcing the company to shut down operations for nearly a week, unleashing chaos in the southeast of the country. In mid-May, Colonial Pipeline revealed that it paid $5 million in cryptocurrency to the hacking group. At the time of revealing the payment, the company claimed that it had been made in an “untraceable” cryptocurrency without giving further details about it, although authorities recently traced the funds and seized $2,3 million in bitcoins.
According to report According to CNBC, the US government's newly created cyberattack and ransomware research group was able to access one of the DarkSide group's bitcoin wallets, recovering part of the funds. Although the authorities' report indicates that the feds accessed the private keys of a bitcoin address of the group, without giving further details, the truth is that The authorities gained access to the funds with the collaboration of a third party, who had the funds in his possession. private keys, and not because they have managed to “hack” the network, as they insinuate.
At the close of this edition, Bitcoin (BTC) is quoted at a value of $32.770 per unit, a 12% drop from its value on Tuesday. However, despite this being the fourth significant drop that BTC has experienced since May, its value is still three times higher than it was a year ago, when it was trading at around $3.
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