El Salvador seeks to attract investment of about 1 billion in bitcoin with visa program

program is aimed at large-scale investors who contribute $1 million in the country to finance works in the areas of culture, security, technology, and social welfare.

The Government of El Salvador launched on Thursday a visa program called “Adopting El Salvador Freedom Visa Program”, with which it seeks to attract 1,000 investors who “contribute” $1 million in bitcoin or the stable cryptocurrency USD per year.

“Said program is aimed at large-scale investors who contribute $1 million in the country to finance works in the areas of culture, security, technology, and social welfare,” the Press Secretariat of the Presidency said in a statement released on the social network X, while the program’s official site indicates that the “exclusive residency invitation” is limited to 1,000 participants per year.

The Press Secretariat added that “some of the projects that have been previously identified as destinations for these investments include interventions in schools, improvements in public health infrastructure, increasing access to health services, strengthening road connectivity and telecommunications”.

“This means that those who join the program will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of El Salvador. They will be able to be an active part of the transformation into a technological hub and a unique tourist destination,” he added.

He added that “investors will have access to a special visa, after completing the selection process” and that “ Tether, the largest company in the cryptocurrency industry, will provide the technology for the execution of the program”.

Last September, El Salvador completed two years of having adopted bitcoin as legal tender without the population making massive use of the crypto-asset, amid warnings of being a way for the irregular financing of electoral campaigns for the 2024 elections and without the government accounting for the funds used.

This Central American country became in September 2021 the first nation in the world to have the crypto-currency as legal tender – together with the US dollar – and more than US$250 million have been invested in this project, which has been the main economic bet of President Nayib Bukele.

By 2022, the government was expected to place bitcoin bonds, known as Volcano Bonds, for US$1 billion to finance the construction of Bitcoin City in the east of the country, but no such financial move was made.

Source: Forbes Central America