エルサルバドル、「毎日１ビットコイン」購入へ 大統領

【サンサルバドルＡＦＰ＝時事】世界で初めてビットコインを法定通貨に採用した中米エルサルバドルのナジブ・ブケレ大統領は１７日、政府が毎日１ビットコイン（ＢＴＣ）ずつ購入していく方針を明らかにした。（写真はビットコインの看板）
　ブケレ氏はツイッターに「あすから毎日、１ビットコインを購入していく」と投稿。ビットコインの法定通貨化は国民の批判にさらされているが、ブケレ氏はさらに積極的に推進する構えだ。
　ビットコイン相場は１７日時点で１ＢＴＣ＝約１万６５００ドル（１ドル＝約１４０円）。エルサルバドルが法定通貨に採用した２０２１年９月の４万５０００ドル、その２か月後に付けた史上最高値の約６万８０００ドルから大幅に下落している。
　中米大学が先月公表した世論調査では、エルサルバドル人の４分の３以上が法定通貨へのビットコイン採用は「失敗」と回答。実際に利用していている人は４分の１以下だった。
　「（ブケレ氏は）ビットコイン購入に公金を使い続けるべきでない」とする回答も８０％近くに上った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/11/18-12:54）

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, said Thursday the nation would buy one unit of the currency every day, doubling down in the face of public criticism of his embrace of the crypto money.
We are buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow, the president tweeted.
Bitcoin traded at about $16,500 per unit on Thursday, down from $45,000 in September 2021 when El Salvador adopted the cryptocurrency, and some $68,000 two months later -- its highest historic value.
Bukele's idea was to give more Salvadorans access to banking services and to promote crypto money transfers from some three million expats, mainly in the United States, to relatives back home.
Remittances make up more than a quarter of El Salvador's gross domestic product.
But according to data from the Salvadoran Central Bank a year after the introduction of bitcoin, less than two percent of remittances were made using the cryptocurrency.
The measure has been questioned by International Monetary Fund and World Bank due, among other things, to the currency's notorious volatility.
Taking advantage of the plummeting prices, Bukele bought 80 bitcoin with public funds for $19,000 each in July, bringing the Central American country's total reserves to 2,381 units.
But an opinion poll last month showed more than three-quarters of Salvadorans thought Bukele's adoption of the coin was a failure, and fewer than a quarter used it.
The study, conducted by the University of Central America, found that nearly 80 percent of Salvadorans believe their president should not continue to spend public money to buy bitcoin.
On Wednesday, El Salvador's ambassador in Washington Milena Mayorga, a Bitcoin promotor, told state TV Canal 10 its use is a process, first we have to get to know it, education is the key.