Every Adult El Salvador Citizen To Get $30 In Bitcoin As Government Looks To Drive Up Adoption

El Salvador, the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin BTC/USD as a legal tender, is giving away $30 in the apex cryptocurrency to every adult citizen of the country, Cointelegraph reported Thursday.

What Happened: However, El Salvador’s citizens will only receive the free bitcoin after downloading a government-issued cryptocurrency wallet application, the report added, citing local publication Prensa Latina.

A recently passed law recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender in the country will take effect on Sept. 7, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said in a national address on Thursday, according to a report by Reuters.

Bukele added that the wallet app would work anywhere with a cell phone connection.

See Also: JPMorgan Still Bearish On Bitcoin, Expects Decline To $25,000: Report

Why It Matters: The move is part of the government’s efforts to boost Bitcoin adoption in the country and improve financial inclusion. Seventy percent of El Salvadore’s citizens do not have a bank account and are financially excluded from everything.

It was reported earlier this month that El Salvador is partnering with the digital wallet firm Strike to create the necessary infrastructure to make Bitcoin a legal tender in the country.

Bukele had noted on Twitter that if 1% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization of $680 billion was invested in El Salavador, it would boost the Central American nation’s GDP by 25%. He added that Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, will have 10 million potential new users.

#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.

— Nayib Bukele � (@nayibbukele) June 6, 2021

Price Action: Bitcoin is almost 4.3% higher during the last 24 hours, trading at $34,290.65 at press time.

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