El Salvador, with just over 6 million inhabitants, the country whose motto is “God, Union and Liberty” already manages to attract dozens of cryptocurrency companies and already has almost 10 times more bitcoin boxes than Brazil.
The country that adopted Bitcoin as its official currency in September 2021 already sees huge advances and is an almost perfect contrast to Brazil.
El Salvador, the country of Bitcoin wants to become a technological hub
According to data from the Central Bank of El Salvador, the country already has 80 officially registered companies that sell cryptocurrencies. The number will be even higher, as a few more crypto market giants are landing in the country. This is the case of Bitfinex, which also announced its presence in El Salvador and will help in the process of tokenizing public debt on blockchain.
Among the companies registered as bitcoin providers are well-known Paxos, Bitcapital and Chivo.
Two other companies that draw attention are the creators of Bitcoin Banks (ATMs) Neo Tech and Quickipay, which helped install more than 205 ATMs for BTC withdrawals in the country.
Brazil vs El Salvador: delay versus innovation
To give you an idea, Brazil, with 35 times more population than El Salvador, has only 25 Bitcoin ATMs, according to data from CoinATMrada, almost ten times less than the first country to adopt Bitcoin as its official currency.
While El Salvador becomes a hub for innovation in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, in Brazil, some bitcoin exchanges close their doors and others have to paralyze operations due to excessive bureaucracy and regulatory confusion.
In early February 2023, the traditional Bitcoin broker Walltime decided to close its doors. Recently, the tokenizer Liqi paralyzed operations after a statement from the CVM with an understanding that makes the asset tokenization process difficult.
El Salvador and the purge of corruption
Along with the adoption of Bitcoin as its official currency, El Salvador has created several measures to reduce corruption, violence and judicial uncertainties.
President Nayib Bukele managed, with the support of the Legislative Assembly, to retire a third of the country’s judges, including Supreme Court justices. With the decrease in legal uncertainty and the court of corrupt judges, thousands of criminals were arrested.
As a result, El Salvador went from the most violent country in the Americas to the most peaceful, with zero homicides in April.
The country also zeroed income tax, capital gains, imports and technology companies. A complete contrast to the Brazilian government, which will create a new tax on imports, has increased the income tax filing range, wants to tax capital gains and technology companies.
