By
Bena Ilyas
April 18th, 2024
Dubbed as Chivo Pets the new veterinary hospital comes on the $4 million profits derived from the BTC price surge. However, El Salvador is not spending its BTC but rather using the USD equivalent from the fund.
El Salvador has been aggressively adding Bitcoin to its Treasury ever since it made BTC a legal currency in the country. However, the country is now putting its $4 million Bitcoin profit at use.
Last Saturday, October 9, El Salvador president Nayib Bukele explained it in a series of tweets explaining this development. Bukele said that the El Salvador trust that made Bitcoin a legal tender now holds a surplus amid the BTC price surge.
Bukele said that El Salvador didn’t sell BTC for this project. However, due to the BTC price surge, the country was able to spend the dollars in the fund they created to buy Bitcoin. El Salvador lawmakers approved this $150 million Bitcoin fund before passing the Bitcoin law on September 7. El Salvador currently holds a total of 700 BTC in its treasury.
Bukele also explained how the Trust works and why it has a surplus. The Trust dubbed FIDEBITCOIN holds funds in terms of USD by law. Thus, the Trusts balance sheet includes both BTC and USD. Bukele wrote:
“FIDEBITCOIN (the trust for the adoption of the #Bitcoin ) has an amount established, by law, in dollars. However, on your balance sheet you have dollars (USD) and #bitcoin (BTC). Chivo, the state company that operates FIDEBITCOIN, must settle this amount in dollars to @BANDESAL.”
El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption is also gaining strength. In less than 1.5 months from passing the law, 3 million citizens have already signed up with the native Chivo digital wallet. This is like 46% of the El Salvador population. El Salvador will name the new veterinary hospital as Chivo Pets.
The Chivo Pets facility will offer services to handle emergency vet appointments, rehabilitation and grooming, and operations.
Vitalik Buterin Criticizes Bitcoin (BTC) Adoption by El Salvador
Last week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin criticized El Salvador’s decision for Bitcoin adoption. He spoke out against making Bitcoin a legal currency which makes it compulsory for merchants and businesses to accept payments in Bitcoin. In one of his Reddit posts, Buterin wrote:
“Making it mandatory for businesses to accept a specific cryptocurrency is contrary to the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be so important to the crypto space”.
Last month on September 7, El Salvador passed the Bitcoin law.
“Every economic agent must accept bitcoin as payment when offered to him by whoever acquires a good or service. Those who, by evident and notorious fact, do not have access to the technologies that allow them to carry out transactions in bitcoin are excluded from the obligation expressed in Art. 7 of this law. The State will promote the necessary training and mechanisms so that the population can access bitcoin transactions,” article 7 of the El Salvador Bitcoin law reads.
Buterin said that country has been rushing into making its people accept BTC. He said that pushing BTC use to people with no prior attempt to educate people is “reckless”. It “risks a large number of innocent people getting hacked or scammed,” added Buterin.
“Shame on everyone (ok, fine, I’ll call out the main people responsible: shame on Bitcoin maximalists) who are uncritically praising him [Bukele],” wrote Buterin.