Bukele says he won't discuss bitcoin bonds with Binance CEO in El Salvador

San Salvador, 23 Mar El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said Wednesday on Twitter that he will not discuss in a meeting with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao the issuance of $1 billion in bitcoin bonds, unless he seeks to buy. “I will meet with @cz_binance (Changpeng Zhao) tomorrow to discuss OTHER issues, not volcano bonds (bitcoin). Unless you want to buy something, of course,” the president published. Bukele noted that the bonds “will be issued with Bitfinex,” one of the main cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Zhao is in El Salvador and was accompanied today by the Salvadoran ambassador to the United States, Milena Mayorga. President Bukele did not indicate in his publication whether he was denying Mayorga, who stated that a visit like Zhao's “gives full support to all the economic freedom we are looking for through the implementation of bitcoin as a legal tender, with the sale of volcano bonds.” “We need entrepreneurs like him (Zhao) to support the issue of subscribing volcano bonds,” Mayorga told a local media outlet. Binance is one of the most popular crypto asset exchanges in the world and its BNB cryptocurrency is one of the most popular cryptocurrency on the market, behind Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether. The Government announced that the issuance of these bonds would take place between March 15 and 20, 2022. President Bukele noted in another publication that the “short delay” in issuing these bonds “is solely due” to the prioritization of internal pension reform and that needs to be sent to Congress first. Bukele stated on September 15, 2021 that within 30 days they were going to present “a comprehensive pension reform to ensure that all Salvadorans have a decent pension”, but it has not occurred almost 6 months later. El Salvador's Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya said Tuesday that the government is “ready” to issue $1 billion bitcoin bonds through an energy company. “With regard to the issuance of bitcoin bonds, we are ready to do it, we are waiting for the right moment,” Zelaya said in a television interview. However, the head of the Treasury argued that he considers that it is not yet the time to issue the issue, but pointed out that “the ideal dates” for “going to market” are in the first half of the year. He noted, without revealing details, that there are “buyers interested” in these bonds for a “good amount” of money and that he expects that demand exceeds the supply of 1 billion by 500 million. Zelaya confirmed that the issuance of these bonds will not be made directly by the Government, but will be channeled “through LaGeo”, which is the company that manages geothermal energy generation. “If it is issued by the State or issued by LaGeo, in the end it is always a debt of the State” because “most of the shares” belong to the autonomous Executive Hydroelectric Commission of the Lempa River (CEL). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the country to “limit the scope of the Bitcoin Act by eliminating its status as a legal tender” and also expressed its “concern” about the issuance of these bonds. The economist Ricardo Castaneda, from the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies (ICEFI), told Efe in late February that the result of the issuance of these bonds will largely mark the future of Bukele's “political project” and the adoption of this cryptocurrency. “If the placement of these bonds is a success, the government will actually be able to laugh at multilateral agencies, because it would have found an alternative source of resources,” he said. In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal currency, along with the US dollar, a period that has been marked by poor acceptance among the population and the lack of information on the management of more than 200 million dollars destined for its adoption.