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Salvadorans have expressed approval of President Nayib Bukele, but they’ve not exactly warmed to his adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender.
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Salvadorans haven’t warmed to their country’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender, with a recent survey finding that 92% don’t make transactions using the cryptocurrency.
Just 7.5% of respondents to an Oct. 10 survey from the San Salvador University Francisco Gavidia said they used Bitcoin (BTC) to make transactions, while 0.5% chose not to respond to the question.
The latest results suggest a slight decline in the use of Bitcoin in the Central American nation, as an earlier survey by the University of Central America’s public opinion institute found 88% of Salvadorans didn’t use Bitcoin for transactions in 2023.
92% of surveyed Salvadorans said they didn’t use Bitcoin for transactions. Source: UFG
The survey interviewed 1,224 adult citizens of El Salvador, asking them a series of questions on their most pressing political and economic concerns.
Around 60% of respondents believed the country was charting the correct course forward and expressed strong approval of President Nayib Bukele.
However, the survey found only 1.3% believed that Bitcoin should be the “main bet” for the future of the country, with respondents overwhelmingly saying education and industry should be the primary focus.
Bukele was elected in June 2019 and has instigated a controversial but locally popular crackdown on organized criminal gangs, which saw him imprison around 1% of the country’s population.
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Salvadorans widely supported the move, but Bukele’s crackdown was slammed by human rights advocacy groups who claimed there has been little due process and widespread mistreatment of those incarcerated.
In September 2021, Buekele moved to have El Salvador become the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender and has since attempted to court foreign capital by offering Bitcoin “Freedom” visas and even promised to develop a Bitcoin City.
Bukele was sworn in for a second, five-year term as president in June this year, promising to position the country as a “world leader” across various industries, including crypto.
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This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
