More Regions Are Following El Salvador's Bitcoin Play

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The Honduras city of Próspera will also introduce Bitcoin as legal tender, while Madeira has announced that it will not charge taxes on Bitcoin. 

Mexico Weighs Bitcoin Adoption 

Mexico is taking steps toward introducing Bitcoin as a legal tender. 

The Central American country will prepare legislation to adopt Bitcoin as an official currency in the next two months, Mexican senator Indira Kempis announced today.

Kempis shared the news onstage with known Bitcoin evangelist Samson Mow at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami. She delivered an emphatic speech about how Bitcoin adoption could benefit Mexicans, noting that 67 million people are excluded from the country’s financial system today. “Bitcoin is the answer to solve this problem,” she said. She then revealed that she and Mow would sit down with Mexico’s President Obrador to discuss introducing Bitcoin as a legal tender. 

Mow, who until recently worked as Blockstream’s Chief Strategy Officer, shared several other announcements as part of his Bitcoin 2022 appearance. Ahead of Kempis arriving onstage, he explained that he had left Blockstream because he wanted to “accelerate Hyperbitcoinization” by helping nation states adopt Bitcoin (“Hyperbitcoinization” is an imagined state the top crypto’s fans use to refer to mass Bitcoin adoption). He revealed that he had formed a new company called JAN3 and raised $21 million in a bid to help Bitcoin gain traction around the world. 

Próspera, Madeira Working With JAN3 

After announcing that JAN3 had signed an agreement to build infrastructure for El Salvador’s Bitcoin plans, Mow revealed that the Honduras city of Próspera had introduced Bitcoin as a legal tender. He then welcomed Próspera President Joel Bomgar to the stage to announce that the city was enabling Bitcoin bonds with Mow’s help. Bomgar explained that the initiative had been established to bring foreign investment to Próspera and also invited viewers to invest in the city’s security token. 

Mow finally announced that the autonomous Portugese region of Madeira would be adopting the number one crypto asset. Madeira President Miguel Albuquerque appeared onstage to say that the region would not charge taxes on Bitcoin and that he would work with Mow to create an environment in which the asset could thrive. “I believe in the future, and I believe in Bitcoin,” he said to loud cheers. 

Mow’s Bitcoin 2022 appearance comes a year after Strike’s Jack Mallers, another of the top crypto’s most prominent evangelists, appeared on the same stage to announce that El Salvador would be introducing Bitcoin as a legal tender. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele was due to appear at this year’s conference but canceled his visit citing “unforeseen circumstances.” Under Bukele’s leadership, El Salvador made history by adopting Bitcoin as an official currency in September 2021, and rumors of other nation states like Mexico following in the country’s footsteps have abounded in crypto circles since. JAN3 appears set on making sure that El Salvador isn’t the last country to adopt the asset legally, and Mow wants other Bitcoiners to help with its mission. “We have to defend what we have and gain more ground,” he urged. 

Disclosure: Crypto Briefing is a media sponsor of Bitcoin 2022.

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