El Salvador authorities have mined 473,5 BTC in geothermal energy since 2021
In total, the government’s accounts hold coins worth $360 million at the current exchange rate
15.05.2024 - 10:45
141
3 min
0
What’s new? Over the past three years, the government of El Salvador has mined 473,5 BTC using a geothermal power plant powered by lava flows from the Tecapa volcano. The administration of President and bitcoin enthusiast Nayib Bukele, who was re-elected for a second term earlier this year, has installed 300 mining devices. Of the state power plant’s total capacity of 102MW, 1,5MW of the asset’s mining capacity is accounted for.
What else is known? The authorities began mining bitcoin in September 2021, just after the asset received official tender status. El Salvador became the first country to legalize bitcoin.
According to the National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC), established at the end of 2022 to manage government crypto projects, the treasury holds a total of 5750 BTC, worth more than $360 million at the current exchange rate.
After the legalization of BTC, the authorities began investingin the asset regularly, which drew criticism from both citizens and IMF experts.
In February this year, Bukele noted that the government’s investment in the first cryptocurrency had grown by 40%. He also drew attention to the fact that critics of this investment strategy ignored this fact, although earlier they actively counted the unrealized losses of the authorities as a result of the fall of the BTC exchange rate.
In May, ONBTC launched a mempool to track government BTC assets.
In addition to mining and investments, the government has another source of BTC: a $1 million citizenship program for crypto investments, launched in conjunction with USDT Tether, the issuer of the USDT Tether stablecoin, late last year. The program will allocate 1000 visas each year, and if all slots are filled, authorities will be able to receive $1 billion in cryptocurrency each year.
Tether and Bitfinex’s parent company will participate in the creation of crypto regulation in El Salvador
The parties have been actively collaborating on other areas since 2021
El Salvador’s Vice President Felix Ulloa back in October last year cited the legalization of BTC as the main reason for the country’s economic growth.
Useful material?
Telegram 
Twitter Incidents
Over the last 24 hours, the asset has updated its all-time high at $2,34
Oct 15, 2024
Market
The Bitnomial platform will try to challenge the SEC’s position on the status of the XRP token
Oct 11, 2024
Incidents
Law enforcers explained such a small sentence by the fact that Heather Morgan actively cooperated with the investigation and played a minor role in the crime
Oct 11, 2024
Crypto regulations
The exchange also allowed local customers to deposit and withdraw fiat currency
Oct 11, 2024
Market
The company implemented a large-scale scheme to manipulate the rates of digital assets
Oct 10, 2024
Market
Conversely, the victory of Harris, according to broker analysts, could cause a significant correction
Oct 9, 2024
Cryptocurrency rates
-
Bitcoin
$66 853
BTC
+1.48%
-
Ethereum
$2 586.78
ETH
-1.4%
-
BNB Smart Chain
$592.87
BSC
+0.58%
-
Ripple
$0.542575
XRP
-0.91%
-
Dogecoin
$0.114783
DOGE
-0.5%
-
Cardano
$0.357681
ADA
-1.87%
-
Bitcoin Cash
$354.65
BCH
+0.07%
-
Polkadot
$4.39
DOT
+0.53%
-
Litecoin
$69.41
LTC
+3.8%
-
Stellar XLM
$0.092538
XLM
-0.72%