US Senators Introduce Bill That Requires Reports on El Salvador’s Bitcoin Adoption

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A group of US Senators has just introduced a somewhat strange bill that requires regular reports of El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption. As you may already know, El Salvador has made cryptocurrency legal years ago now. Opinions on the experiment’s success are divided, with the country’s president praising it and citizens saying the opposite. One thing’s for sure – El Salvador has managed to outlast expectations, and its economy is in solid shape after a couple of years of using Bitcoin.

Now, some US senators are looking into the accountability of it all. Senators James Risch, Bob Menendez, and Bill Cassidy have drafted a bill named Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador Act that requires the Secretary of State and other departments and agencies to submit reports on El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption. It should feature deeper looks into the country’s regulatory framework and how Bitcoin impacts its macroeconomic stability.

Mitigating Potential Risks

According to the senators, the bill’s goal is to mitigate any risks on the US financial system. Not just by El Salvador, but any country that adopts crypto as legal tender. The plan should be submitted no later than 90 days of the report.

El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in June 2021, much to the dismay of experts, the USA, and the IMF. It came after the IMF repeatedly rejected helping the small island’s fragile economy. President Nayib Bukele did something revolutionary when he accepted Bitcoin as legal tender, shifting the country’s macroeconomic status. He’s gone further than that, even dedicating part of the country’s budget to developing a Bitcoin city that will run on pure volcano power.

El Salvador has remained committed to its Bitcoin plans and isn’t backing down. Since introducing the cryptocurrency as legal tender, it has been a thorn in major countries’ sides. Risch was the first senator to introduce the bill, supposedly as a pair of efforts to fight crypto as legal tender. The Idaho senator seems to be taking a second pass on the Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador bill that was first introduced in February 2022, just months after El Salvador made its move.

Risch was and is still concerned on what kind of an impact the adoption could have. It may weaken the US economy and empower ‘malign’ actors, which is exactly what the US is against.

Will It Pass?

As of now, there’s no information whether the bill will pass. If it does, it will require federal agencies in the US to report on El Salvador’s crypto adoption and its financial stability and capabilities. It should also show how they played a role in Bitcoin adoption. Everyone’s been warning El Salvador about the potential threat of adoption, yet the country has moved forward with its plans. It seems to be doing alright too which obviously is the reason why others rage at it.

Time will pass before the bill is passed, and there’s been no movement in it for now. The last bill has still not moved, and El Salvador’s bold president Nayib Bukele called US senators ‘boomers’ on Twitter when it was introduced.