El Salvador today has become the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin (BTC) as an official coin and the third one to buy bitcoin as the nation and the first-ever country to airdrop bitcoin to citizens.
Bitcoin Is Officially A Legal Tender in El Salvador
El Salvadorian maverick president, Nayib Bukele, believes that making bitcoin an official legal tender will have a positive effect on the economy as it will help the country evade US sanctions.
Since June, the Latin American country began to install 200 government-backed Bitcoin ATMs to allow citizens to convert the token into US dollars via a government-issued digital wallet without paying commissions.

Contactless ATM machine for payment by Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Concept pay mobile phone. (Source: Shutterstock)
El Salvador Buys 200 Bitcoin
Ahead of world-first adoption, El Salvador purchased another 200 BTC, which is worth almost $21 million at the time of writing), as Bukele announced in a tweet stating:
El Salvador just bought 200 new coins.
— Nayib Bukele ?? (@nayibbukele) September 6, 2021
We now hold 400 #bitcoin#BitcoinDay ??
Now El Salvador, which owns 400 BTC, has also issued a national crypto wallet, dubbed as Chivowallet, which would be available in Apple's App Store, Google's Play Store, and Huawei AppGallery soon.
Ya está @chivowallet en poder de @Apple, @Google y @Huawei.
— Nayib Bukele ?? (@nayibbukele) September 7, 2021
Esperando a que esté disponible en sus tiendas.
No debería de tardar mucho.
Esperemos un ratito.
This latest purchase of Bitcoin comes as part of that latest $150 million funds the government allocated to convert Bitcoin to US dollars.
Excited Salvadorians are currently urging the tech giants to release the app already!
Liberen la @chivowallet, @Apple ??#BitcoinDay ??
— Chinita Lohan ?? (@Chinita_Lohan) September 7, 2021
Iré por café ☕️ alguien quiere?? pic.twitter.com/KIFptTBBWf
Support from Crypto Community
Twitter and Reddit users have raced to show support for El Salvador on social media calling on other users to buy fractures of BTC as small as $30 on Sep 7 to mark bitcoin becoming an official legal tender in El Salvador.
It’s 8:00am in Italy and I Just bought $30 worth of #Bitcoin to celebrate #BitcoinDay ✌?
— Paolo Diomede ?? (@pdiomede) September 7, 2021
Kudos to #ElSalvador and his president @nayibbukele to become the first country in the world to embrace the future! $BTC #WorldBitcoinDay #FutureIsNow #cryptocurrencies #crypto #cryptoinvest pic.twitter.com/WVoBgEUiyg
However, despite all the praise by the crypto community, International bodies like The World Bank and The International Monetary Fund (IMF) have warned against such a move.