El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approves $150M Bitcoin Trust

The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador has passed a bill to create a $150 million dollar Bitcoin Trust to support the development of crypto infrastructure and services across the country.

64 out of 78 officials voted in favor of the bill passed on Aug. 31. The Trust aims to ease the conversion of Bitcoin into US Dollars, and support the launch of vital technological infrastructure to enhance the adoption of crypto assets.

News of the trust comes just one week ahead of the full implementation of the country’s Bitcoin Law. The impending law will recognize BTC as legal tender in El Salvador from September 7th.

The Development Bank of El Salvador (Bandesal) will supervise the operations of the trust.

$150 million out of the country’s $500 million loan with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) has been earmarked for the trust. The original loan was taken to aid small and medium-sized businesses through an economic recovery phase.

The trust has allocated $23.3 million to support the installation of government-backed crypto ATMs, while $30 million has been designated to offer incentives to encourage the adoption of the Government’s digital wallet, Chivo.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced in June that the nation would be releasing an official Bitcoin and crypto wallet later in the year, and citizens will receive $30 worth of Bitcoin after downloading the wallet app.

Despite the supposed progress, the proposed Bitcoin law has been met with criticisms from international organizations and El Salvadorans.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expressed its “economic and legal” worries over the country’s pro-BTC stance. Similarly, El Salvador’s Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party is also against the decision of making Bitcoin legal tender, according to BTC PEERS.