El Salvador to Spend $2mln in Bitcoin Profits to Construct 20 New Schools

El Salvador, which adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender in September, will now use the money it has profited from the cryptocurrency to fund the construction of a large number of new educational facilities. During an occasion to mark the start of building of the country’s first public veterinary hospital, which is also being financed by bitcoin revenues, President Nayib Bukele made the news.

According to reports, the Central American nation has now opted to put part of its Bitcoin revenues back into its society by spending $2 million USD to create 20 new schools in the country’s capital. When the project began, the FIDEBITCOIN fund did not have the same level of excess it has now, said El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who was also on hand to celebrate the inauguration of a pet hospital that was also built using Bitcoin revenues.

“This was one of the factors that influenced our decision to proceed with the sanctioning of the construction of the first 20 Bitcoin schools.”

The news comes just under two months after El Salvador became the foremost nation in the world to formally recognise bitcoin as a legal form of currency with the passage of the Bitcoin Law, which was signed into law last month. In addition, the government founded the Salvadoran Trust for the Adoption of Bitcoin, which has purchased more than 1,000 bitcoins in the previous several months, according to its website.

A trust account for FIDEBITCOIN was established by Bukele himself and is managed by the Bank for the Development of El Salvador. The FIDEBITCOIN trust account now has around $150 million USD in reserves. Bukele has promised that no public funds would be utilised in the building of these new schools at any point in time. The purchase of cryptocurrency has coincided with a significant price boom for bitcoin, which has climbed by around 40% since the introduction of the Bitcoin Law.

“I would want to declare that with the few million dollars that we have left over from bitcoin income, we will create 20 bitcoin schools that will be completely equipped and contemporary,” President Bukele remarked. “God willing, further works will result from the earnings of a trust that was established and a law that was enacted as a result of our refusal to listen to the opponents.”

Additionally, President Bukele asserted that the Bitcoin Law has enabled residents to receive remittance payments without having to pay expensive fees. One of the key reasons for implementing the legislation was the fact that remittances account for around 23 percent of El Salvador’s gross domestic product.

It was also done to lessen the nation’s dependence on the US dollar as a reserve currency, while also providing a direct path to financial services in a country where over 70% of the population doesn’t really have a bank account, but over 90% has a smartphone.