El Salvador
El Salvador to Create ‘Bitcoin City,’ Use $500M of Planned $1B Bond Offering to Buy More Crypto
El Salvador plans to build “Bitcoin City,” an entire city based on bitcoin located along the Gulf of Fonseca near a volcano. President Nayib Bukele also said he plans on issuing a $1 billion “bitcoin bond,” a tokenized financial instrument developed by Blockstream on the Liquid Network.

Paxful CEO on El Salvador's Bitcoin Rollout
On the ground in El Salvador at the 2021 Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference, CoinDesk's Elaine Ramirez talks to Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful, a peer-to-peer crypto marketplace that has made strides onboarding crypto adopters in emerging markets. Youssef discusses the latest on El Salvador's bitcoin rollout and the country's wider state of crypto affairs.

Athena Bitcoin CEO on Bitcoin Adoption and ATM Installations in El Salvador
El Salvador now has the world's third-largest bitcoin ATM network. This comes as Athena Bitcoin has installed around 200 bitcoin ATMs in the country as part of a plan to install 1,500 machines in total. Athena Bitcoin CEO Eric Gravengaard shares insights into the scope of his firm's involvement in scaling bitcoin ATMs in El Salvador. Plus, an update on the country's bitcoin rollout and the remaining challenges ahead.

Identity Thieves Exploit El Salvador’s Chivo Bitcoin Wallet’s Setup Process
Hundreds of Salvadorans have reported identity thefts, saying hackers opened Chivo Wallets with their ID numbers to claim the $30 bitcoin incentive dangled by Nayib Bukele's government. "The Hash" hosts discuss the latest development in El Salvador's rollout of bitcoin as legal tender.

Buterin Calls Mandatory Acceptance of Bitcoin in El Salvador Counter to Crypto’s ‘Ideals of Freedom’
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the forced adoption of bitcoin in El Salvador in a comment he made in a Reddit forum on Friday, noting that “making it mandatory for businesses to accept a specific cryptocurrency is contrary to the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be so important to the crypto space.”

BitGo CEO on Bitcoin: ‘Large Peak, Large Retreat Ahead’
As bitcoin bounces back above $49,000, Mike Belshe, CEO of institutional crypto custody and security firm BitGo, discusses his short-term outlook and long-term price prediction for BTC. “We will probably … see a large peak and then a large retreat,” Belshe said. “It’s a volatile space. Be prepared for it.”

El Salvador Mines First Bitcoin With Volcanic Energy
“The Hash” team reacts to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, revealing the country has officially mined the first bitcoin using volcanic energy. With almost 22% of the country’s energy supply coming from geothermal sources, could El Salvador provide an answer to the hunt for a reliable, clean energy source to power bitcoin mining?

SEC Chair Gensler Reiterates Support for Futures-Based Bitcoin ETFs
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler reiterated his support Wednesday for a narrow class of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that would invest in futures contracts instead of the crypto itself. CoinDesk's Galen Moore discusses the outlook for the U.S. ETF landscape, suggesting the likelihood of a spot ETF getting approved compared to a bitcoin futures ETF. Plus, his views on El Salvador using volcanic energy for bitcoin mining.

