Bitcoin will be adopted as legal tender in three more countries in 2022, says deVere’s Nigel Green
The list of potential adopters is long and includes Panama, Paraguay, Guatemala, and Honduras, but Tonga, Turkey, and Bolivia also face enough inflationary pressures to consider such a move, according to Nigel Green.
deVere Group chief executive Nigel Green has predicted that Bitcoin will be adopted as legal tender in three more countries in 2022.
Quite an ultra-bullish prediction from the executive for the independent financial advisory, asset management, and fintech firm. His comments follow the President of El Salvador’s remarks on Bitcoin and the future of currency.
El Salvador President predicted 2 more countries but the list is long
Nayib Bukele has gone on Twitter to say that “2 more countries will adopt it as legal tender” and that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 this year. His bold statements were shared with his 3.2 million followers and reported by news media across the globe.
El Salvador made history in September 2021 by becoming the first country in the world to make Bitcoin an official currency alongside the U.S. dollar. The country is likely to be followed extensively in the coming months as economists, investors, and governments want to know whether that decision will save or destroy the economy.
“I’m confident that the young, maverick President, Nayib Bukele, is correct about other countries adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2022. But I would go further still than he did. I believe that it’s likely that three more nations will follow El Salvador’s pioneering, future-focused lead into the digital age”, deVere Group’s Nigel Green said.
“Low-income countries have long suffered because their currencies are weak and extremely vulnerable to market changes and that triggers rampant inflation. This is why most developing countries become reliant upon major ‘first-world’ currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, to complete transactions.
“However, reliance on another country’s currency also comes with its own set of, often very costly, problems. A stronger U.S. dollar, for example, will weigh on emerging-market economic prospects, since developing countries have taken on so much dollar-denominated debt in the past decades.”
“By adopting cryptocurrency as legal tender these countries then immediately have a currency that isn’t influenced by market conditions within their own economy, nor directly from just one other country’s economy. Bitcoin operates on a global scale and therefore is impacted by wider, global economic changes.”
Nigel Green also points out the potential to “bolster financial inclusion for individuals and businesses” in developing countries as they “can circumnavigate the biases” of traditional banks and other financial services providers.
FinanceFeeds webinar: Expert panel to discuss market data for multi-asset brokerages
Tonga, Turkey, Bolivia, Panama, Paraguay, Guatemala, and Honduras
Nigel Green listed the countries he believes have the highest potential to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender sooner rather than later. He agreed with Bukele’s Twitter followers’ suggestions that included Tonga, Turkey and Bolivia, but added a few more.
“Due to their similar reliance on remittances, amongst other factors, other countries, including Panama, Paraguay, Guatemala and Honduras, could also adopt Bitcoin.
“Just after El Salvador’s adoption back in September, Panama announced a bill to make the cryptocurrency legal tender in the country. Also, Congressman Gabriel Silva tweeted that this could create jobs in Panama and lure investment from other nations.
“A Paraguayan bill moving to regulate the trading and mining of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the country passed the Senate last month. Is this the first step to making Bitcoin legal tender?”
The central banks of Honduras and Guatemala are both eying digital currencies too, but they are taking a different approach, for now. “They’re currently studying central bank digital currencies (CBDC). This demonstrates, again, that they too are confident that the future of money is digital.
“However, I think they will ultimately embrace an existing cryptocurrency as a legal tender, as El Salvador has done. President Bukele is right. Other countries will indeed follow El Salvador’s example and make Bitcoin legal tender in 2022. How many remains unclear, of course. But when it happens, it will be a snowball effect.”
Many world leaders and top economists have shared their concerns with more countries wanting to follow suit and adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. They have also called President Nayib Bukele to review his decision as Bitcoin’s deflationary forces could implode El Salvador’s economy.
