El Salvador pro-Bitcoin president Nayib Bukele launches re-election bid

October 30, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Despite Bukele’s popularity, some critics argue he isn’t eligible to be re-elected under El Salvador’s constitution.

El Salvador president Nayib Bukele has filed paperwork to be re-elected in the country’s upcoming 2024 presidential election in February.

Bukele, a Bitcoin advocate, received strong support from the public on Oct. 26 after he was officially nominated by his party to run for re-election.

“Five more [years], five more and not one step back,” Bukele said in a speech in front of thousands of El Salvadorans. “We need five years to continue improving our country,” he added.

| ÚLTIMA HORA: Al grito de “cinco más, cinco más y ni un paso atrás” Nayib Bukele da su discurso delante de miles de Salvadoreños luego de inscribir su candidatura presidencial para la reelección. “Necesitamos 5 años para seguir mejorando nuestro país.” pic.twitter.com/ApaP8yyQBm
— Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) October 27, 2023

Bukele rose to power in 2019 when his political party, Neuva (New) Ideas, broke three decades of two-party dominance between the Nationalist Republican Alliance and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMNLB).

However, despite his popularity among the local population, critics such as El Salvadoran lawyer Alfonso Fajardo maintain that the country’s constitution prohibits Bukele isn’t eligible to seek a second consecutive term.

“Today is a good day to remember that immediate presidential re-election is prohibited up to 7 times by the Constitution,” he said on Oct. 26.

Nayib Bukele is running for reelection in El Salvador despite the fact that it’s prohibited in 7 articles of the constitution. The constitution drafted after our peace accords, after our bloody civil war. This is unconstitutional. https://t.co/ordgib7WMq
— Daniel Alvarenga (@puchicadanny) October 27, 2023

However, in September 2021, El Salvador’s Supreme Court ruled that presidents can run for consecutive elections.

New Ideas is backed by 70% of the country’s voting population, according to Reuters, which cited a study by an El Salvadoran university. Its closest competitor only received 4% of the total votes.

One of New Ideas’ competitors, FMNLB, filed a lawsuit in June 2021 claiming Bukele’s Bitcoin adoption program is unconstitutional. However, that complaint made little ground as Bukele and El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender three months later September 2021.

The Bukele government has also implemented other tech-friendly policies aimed at strengthening the country’s economy, such as eliminating all taxes on technological innovations.

Gabor Gurbacs, a VanEck strategy advisor, recently said that El Salvador has the potential to become the “Singapore of the Americas.”

Much of Bukele’s popularity comes from his heavy-handed crackdown against MS-13, a multi-national gang which contributed towards El Salvador recording the highest homicide rates in the world six years ago.

As a result of the crackdown, El Salvador's homicide rate has fallen a staggering 92.6% from its peak of 106 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 7.8 in 2022. It now boasts one of the lowest crime rates in Latin America.

However, the United Nations and other critics argue El Salvador breached human rights laws by imprisoning 65,000 without affording them legal rights to defend themselves.

El Salvador’s presidential election will take place on Feb. 4, 2024.

Magazine: What it’s actually like to use Bitcoin in El Salvador

Pro-Bitcoin Javier Milei trails as Argentina’s presidential election goes to run-off

October 23, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Argentina

Anti-establishment Javier Milei was the touted favorite in Argentina’s presidential election but is trailing in second place with 90% of the vote counted.

Pro-Bitcoin (BTC) presidential candidate Javier Milei failed to secure victory in the first round of the Argentine presidential election and is now set to face off against economy minister Sergio Massa in a Nov. 19 run-off vote.

On Oct. 23, election results provided by Bloomberg show with over 90% of the vote counted — Massa was in the lead with over 36% support, while Milei trailed with just over 30% of the vote.

The presidential hopefuls needed 45% of votes or 40% with a lead of 10 percentage points to have outright won the presidency.

*Argentina-wide results as of Oct. 23, 1:00 AM UTC with over 90% of the vote counted. Source: Bloomberg*

The result could be seen as unexpected as Milei won the most votes in the country’s primary presidential election in August capturing around 30% of the vote, which initially put him as the presidential frontrunner.

Milei calls himself an anarcho-capitalist, has rallied to slash the size of the government and abolish Argentina’s central bank claiming it’s a scam. He also plans to ditch the Argentinian peso for the U.S. dollar, mirroring the Bitcoin-friendly El Salvador.

Milei’s Liberty Advances (La Libertad Avanza) coalition has been described as anywhere between libertarian and far-right populist.

Milei has also called Bitcoin a reaction against “central bank scammers” and claimed fiat currency allows politicians to scam Argentines with inflation.

Massa, on the other hand, has pledged to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) if elected to “solve” Argentina’s long-lasting inflation crisis and has squashed the idea of adopting the dollar.

The vote comes amid 40% of Argentines facing poverty and tiring of the country’s mounting debt crisis. Annual inflation is also closing in on 140%.

Argentina will again head to the polls on Nov. 19. The candidate with the most votes will win the presidency for a four-year term.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Argentinian presidential candidate wants CBDCs to ‘solve’ hyperinflation

October 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Argentine Peso

Sergio Massa’s stance on central bank digital currencies appears to be in complete opposition to Javier Milei, a pro-Bitcoin candidate who wants to abolish Argentina’s central bank.

Argentinian presidential candidate Sergio Massa has pledged to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) if elected to “solve” Argentina’s long-lasting inflation crisis.

“I am clear that inflation is a huge problem in Argentina,” the country’s second-leading candidate said in an Oct. 2 presidential debate, before outlining how he plans to “solve” the country’s ravaging inflation:

“We are going to launch the digital currency in Argentina. [...] We are going to do it globally for all of Argentina accompanied by a laundering law that allows those who have money abroad to bring it and use it freely without new taxes in parallel.”

Massa, who currently serves as Minister of Economy, shut down the idea that Argentina should move to the United States dollar:

“Dollarization is what generates the temptation of the dollar. Be patriots [and] defend our currency, do not promote the use of it [the U.S. dollar],” he said.

Argentina’s general election will take place on Oct. 22.

Two of three major voting polls suggest Massa is ever so slightly trailing Javier Milei, a pro-Bitcoin and anti-central bank candidate who won Argentina’s primary election in August.

*Argentinian voter preferences across three separate polls. Source: AS/COA.*

Data from American think tank AS/COA suggests that Massa will likely receive the most support in the Buenos Aires province — home to 16.6 million of the country’s 46 million residents — while Milei has majority backing in the more rural parts of the country.

Milei has previously signaled wanting to adopt the United States dollar as Argentina’s currency. As an economist and libertarian, Milei has long been a skeptic of central banking. Part of his campaign promise is to abolish Argentina’s central bank.

Milei previously referred to Bitcoin as a reaction against “central bank scammers” and that the Argentine peso allows politicians to scam Argentines with inflation.

Argentina’s third-leading presidential candidate, Patricia Bullrich would reportedly pursue a currency regime where the Argentine peso and U.S. dollar co-exist as legal tender if she wins the election.

*Value of the Argentine peso denominated in U.S. dollars since 2003. Source: Google Finance.*

The Argentine peso has fallen over 99% against the U.S. dollar since December 2023.

Most data suggests that Argentinian’s inflation is the third highest in the world, only trailing Venezuela and Lebanon.

Magazine: Should you ‘orange pill’ children? The case for Bitcoin kids books

Pro-Bitcoin Javier Milei wins most votes in Argentina primary election

August 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Argentina

Argentine presidential hopeful Javier Milei — a pro-Bitcoin, anti-central bank libertarian — has won a majority of the votes in a primary election.

An Argentinian politician with a knack for supporting Bitcoin and calling for the abolishment of his country’s central bank has taken the lead in the country’s presidential primary elections.

With over 90% of the votes counted, libertarian pro-Bitcoin (BTC) candidate Javier Milei is currently leading with nearly 32% and is trailed by the conservative Together for Change (Juntos por el Cambio) party which is just under 30% according to Bloomberg data.

Meanwhile, the left-wing Union for the Homeland (Unión por la Patria) coalition — the current ruling government’s group — is third with just over 28.5% of the vote.

Libertarian and pro-#bitcoin candidate, Javier Milei, has taken a commanding lead in the Argentinian primary elections. pic.twitter.com/65XQeIVJth
— Peter McCormack‍☠️ (@PeterMcCormack) August 14, 2023

Milei created and leads the Liberty Advances (La Libertad Avanza) coalition whose views have been described as anywhere between libertarian and far-right.

Milei calls himself an anarcho-capitalist and has rallied for Argentina’s central bank to be abolished — calling it a scam, has said human organ sales should be legal and denies the existence of global warming.

He has said Bitcoin is a reaction against “central bank scammers” and claimed legal tender allows politicians to scam Argentines with inflation.

Javier Milei is running for President of Argentina.

He appears to understand money, and that inflation is an unfair mechanism that advantages elites over the people and slowly robs people of their means of survival. pic.twitter.com/tj0KEztUzI
— Alex Stanczyk ∞/21m (@alexstanczyk) January 5, 2023

Such rhetoric has clearly proven popular with Argentina’s voters who are facing an annual inflation rate of 116% — the worst in over three decades that’s adding to the country’s cost of living crisis.

Argentina’s general presidential election will be held on Oct. 22, a candidate must win at least 45% of the vote to win the presidency or a final runoff vote will be triggered to take place in November.

Magazine: Should you ‘orange pill’ children? The case for Bitcoin kids books

Bitcoin, Ether are ‘like gold’ says Cathie Wood, but Ray Dalio is skeptical

April 17, 2023 Coin Telegraph

ARK Invest Ray Dalio

Cathie Wood thinks Bitcoin and Ether are acting as “risk-off” assets and as a “flight to safety” for investors amid macroeconomic uncertainty.

Recent turmoil in the banking sector has shown that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) can withstand a shaky economy, outperform other asset classes and function like gold, says ARK Invest chief executive Cathie Wood — though one long-time investor still isn’t sold.

Wood said in an April 15 interview that Bitcoin’s resilience throughout the most recent banking crisis has been “the most remarkable” of all indicators her tech-focused investment management firm is monitoring.

Bitcoin and Ether are now acting as “risk-off” assets and as a “flight to safety” for investors amid macroeconomic uncertainty, she claimed:

“They’re going to disrupt the traditional world order. What are Bitcoin and Ether doing? I mean by the very fact that they’re being considered flight to safety like gold, that’s really interesting and suggests much broader-based adoption and acceptance than I think most people understand.”

“We would say that there is a flight to safety, certainly led by crypto assets, and it is telling us that the world is transforming and will continue to transform. You cannot stop innovation,” she added.

Why have bitcoin and other crypto assets appreciated during this banking crisis? In our view and in contrast to those in the traditional financial world, many crypto assets face no central points of failure: they are decentralized, transparent, and auditable.
— Cathie Wood (@CathieDWood) March 23, 2023

Wood thinks cryptocurrency will eventually become an “election issue” when the sector becomes more broadly accepted and the public can more clearly see the kinds of regulatory pressures that the United States government are applying on the industry to maintain centralized control of money and monetary policy.

Not all share Wood’s sentiment.

Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund by assets under management, said in an April 12 interview that Bitcoin could not serve as an “effective currency” because it is too volatile and central banks won’t adopt it:

“Bitcoin is neither an effective store hold of wealth or a medium of exchange so it is not an effective currency. It has a volatility to it that has no relation to practically anything [...] it’s a very, very poor alternative to gold.”

“They can outlaw [Bitcoin]. They can regulate it. Central banks and countries pretty much don’t want it anyway,” he said, adding that it gets attention “way out of proportion” to its size.

Dalio strengthened his case by pointing out that gold is the third largest reserve held by central banks, trailing only the U.S. dollar and euros.

Despite previously describing Bitcoin as “one hell of an invention,” Dalio recently explained that he instead wants to see an “inflation-linked” coin be built that would serve to ensure consumers secure their buying power.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom