Paraguay National Deputy Carlitos Rejala confirmed plans to discuss the formal legalization of bitcoin in their country next month are already in place.
This follows El Salvador’s progressive step of recognizing the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization as a legal tender. In fact, politicians from other Latin American nations have also sent signals for a similar intent.
Aside from Paraguay, countries that are included on the list are Panama, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Some experts say this movement is a massive boost for cryptocurrencies in general. However, the road to mass adoption won’t be smooth, as evidenced by snubs from the IMF and the World Bank.
Indications were already there
Since February this year, the crypto Twitter witnessed the rise in popularity of the use of the “laser eyes” theme which is part of the push to drive bitcoin’s price all the way to $100,000.
A number of politicians from the above-mentioned countries have added the meme to their Twitter accounts, including Paraguay’s Carlitos Rejala.
But that wasn’t the only indication of the country’s intent to make the crypto legal on its soil. At the same time when news of El Salvador legalizing bitcoin started to hit the headlines, Rejala posted a message stating the importance of embracing technological innovations.
He even mentioned their country is working on a project that involves bitcoin and digital payments giant PayPal.
El Salvador encounters resistance
While El Salvador was successful in giving bitcoin a “parallel currency” status, both the IMF and the World Bank have expressed their disapproval on the country government’s decision.
In fact, a spokesperson from IMF said this development interferes with the$ 1 billion loan application of El Salvador to offset budget shortfalls that resulted from the effects of the current pandemic.
“Adoption of bitcoin as legal tender raises a number of macroeconomic, financial and legal issues that require very careful analysis,” the spokesperson said.
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