Ambition has a way of crashing hard. When El Salvador’s President Bukele made his country the first to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, he promised a financial revolution. Fast forward to today, and that revolution looks more like a digital dumpster fire.
The flagship Chivo wallet app, meant to be El Salvador’s gateway to crypto freedom, turned into a technical nightmare. Identity theft, unauthorized transactions, and system crashes became the norm, not the exception. Millions of dollars poured into an app that most Salvadorans simply didn’t want to use. Go figure.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s notorious price roller coaster wasn’t exactly helping. The IMF and credit rating agencies warned Bukele was driving the economy off a cliff. El Salvador’s debt ballooned to 80% of GDP by 2023. Those promised tourism dollars and investment windfalls? They barely made a dent.
Bitcoin’s volatile journey left El Salvador’s economy teetering while debt soared and promised windfalls failed to materialize.
Reality hit hard in December 2024. The $1.4 billion IMF loan agreement forced Bukele to pump the brakes on his Bitcoin dreams. No more mandatory acceptance. No crypto tax payments. The government had to back away from the Chivo wallet mess it created. Despite ongoing criticism, Bukele maintained his long-term vision for Bitcoin’s benefits to the country. Tough break.
Public opinion shifted faster than crypto prices. A measly 8.1% of Salvadorans reported using Bitcoin in 2024. People who once cheered for Bitcoin were now protesting in the streets. Turns out people prefer economic stability over digital gambling. Shocking.
The international community wasn’t impressed either. The World Bank refused to help implement the Bitcoin law. Financial institutions worried about money laundering. The G7 basically said, “This is a terrible idea.” Not a single country followed El Salvador’s lead. That speaks volumes.
Bukele still tweets about Bitcoin like it’s 2021. He clings to government Bitcoin holdings and dreams of volcano-powered mining operations. The costly experiment resulted in Bitcoin City remaining just a concept rather than reality. Critics noted that Bukele’s approach lacked the liquidity advantages that established centralized exchanges provide. But the writing’s on the wall. His crypto experiment is crumbling, one failed promise at a time. That’s what happens when digital hype meets economic reality.
