Bitcoin Miami 2021 Take-Aways: El Salvador Could Make the Crypto Legal Tender, Elon Musk Tweet Pushback

Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy
·3 min read
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Bitcoin 2021, “a Bitcoin conference for Bitcoiners by Bitcoiners,” which took place in Miami, June 4-5, brought 12,000 attendees and a slew of famous speakers. Former Congressman Ron Paul kicked off the event, followed by Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey.

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Other speakers included Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Binance CEO Brian Brooks and boxer Floyd Mayweather.

The two-day event closed with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who announced via video that he would introduce legislation that will make it the world’s first sovereign nation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

“In the short term, this will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy,” Bukele said in the video.

He also later tweeted,” #Bitcoin has a market cap of $680 billion dollars. If 1% of it is invested in El Salvador, that would increase our GDP by 25%.On the other side, #Bitcoin will have 10 million potential new users and the fastest growing way to transfer 6 billion dollars a year in remittances.”

He added that “besides, a big chunk of those 6 billion dollars is lost to intermediaries. By using #Bitcoin, the amount received by more than a million low income families will increase in the equivalent of billions of dollars every year. This will improve lives and the future of millions. Furthermore, 70% of El Salvador’s population doesn’t have a bank account and work in the informal economy. Financial inclusion is not only a moral imperative, but also a way to grow the country’s economy, providing access to credit, savings, investment and secure transactions.”

Another notable event was Twitter’s Dorsey saying,”Bitcoin changes absolutely everything. I don’t think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on,” according to CNBC.

“In fact, “if I were not at Square or Twitter, I would be working on bitcoin. If [bitcoin] needed more help than Square or Twitter, I would leave them for bitcoin,” he said. “But, I believe both companies have a role to play,” he added according to CNBC.

Of course, the crypto-omnipresent Elon Musk — who didn’t attend the conference — got some serious pushback from attendees and speakers alike, irate partly, over the fact that Musk is constantly sending cryptos on a roller coaster with his tweets.

NFL player Russell Okung, who converted half his salary to Bitcoin in 2020, launched a campaign in Miami as well as near Tesla’s headquarters, with billboards saying “Stick to Space, Elon.”

“An accurate public narrative about what @bitcoinis_ is important to me,” he tweeted June 3.

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Finally, the Winklevoss twins said that they think Bitcoin “can be 500K and that can happen in the next decade. Maybe even in the next 5 years.”

“Bitcoin has always been a retail driven phenomenon. Wall Street is still not even there yet. It’s all about empowering individuals to get into crypto,” Cameron Winklevoss said.

If you intend on investing in Bitcoin, or other cryptos, you should be aware that volatility is to be expected, so don’t panic at the first sign of trouble. In addition, do your research before buying and know how to keep your tokens safe.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Bitcoin Miami 2021 Take-Aways: El Salvador Could Make the Crypto Legal Tender, Elon Musk Tweet Pushback