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IMF warns El Salvador about risks of Bitcoin, again

Tuesday 31 August 2021 10:08 CET | News

The IMF has revived the warnings published in a blog post in July 2021 and recapped that recognising Bitcoin as national currency represents an ‘inadvisable shortcut.’

Bitcoin is getting adopted as a legal tender in El Salvador but as the Central American country goes through its final days of preparation, being eagerly observed by other countries, some of which are considering following in its footsteps, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) refreshes its warning. 

Along with the World Bank, the intergovernmental financial body has been expressing its disapproval of El Salvador’s crypto legislation since the get-go, raising alarms about economic and legal risks threatening the country if Bitcoin becomes an official legal tender.

While recognizing the ‘advantages of their underlying technologies,’ the authors insist that cryptocurrencies shouldn’t be adopted to such an extent, stating such boldness is a ‘step too far.’ In most cases, the risks of such adoption outweigh its benefits, warn the authors, who underline that recognising Bitcoin as a national currency poses a threat to financial integrity in countries with weak anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) measures.

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Keywords: Bitcoin, digital assets, digital currency, CBDC, risk management
Categories: DeFi & Crypto & Web3
Companies:
Countries: El Salvador
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DeFi & Crypto & Web3