Liechtenstein will legalize bitcoin as a means of payment

Specific dates for the adoption of bitcoin payments in the country are not specified

08.05.2023 - 07:20

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What’s new? Liechtenstein Prime Minister Daniel Risch said that in the future, the country’s citizens will be able to pay for some public services with bitcoin. A “Bitcoin payment option is coming,” he told Handelsblatt, without giving a specific timeline. According to Risch, the government will accept payments for public services in BTC and exchange them into the national currency. The Swiss communities Zug and Lugano use a similar approach to bitcoin payments. The prime minister also allowed that the state could invest some of its reserves in BTC.

Handelsblatt’s material

What else is known? In 2019, Liechtenstein became one of the first countries in the world to adopt special crypto regulation with the Blockchain Act (Liechtenstein Blockchain-Act). In this way, the state became one of the few European financial centers serving the growing market for crypto-banking and investment services.

In March this year, the media reported that as a result of the banking crisis in the U., local crypto companies began opening accounts with banks in Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and island nations.

In which countries is BTC legalized? In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept bitcoin as an official means of payment, after which the authorities began to purchase the asset at the expense of the state budget. In April 2022, the CAR was the first in Africa to recognize BTC as an official currency. In November, it became known that the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis may recognize cryptocurrencies as legal tender.

On December 21, 2022, the president of Brazil signed a law legalizing bitcoin as a means of payment and investment asset, which will take effect 180 days after the signing.

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