El Salvador Passes Law Granting Citizenship to Foreign Bitcoin Investors

El Salvador’s Congress has approved a new migration law that grants expedited citizenship to foreigners who donate Bitcoin (BTC) to government social and economic development projects.

According to a Reuters report on Wednesday, the law is expected to take effect in the coming days.

El Salvador Offers Citizenship to Foreign Bitcoin Investors

The new law, passed by El Salvador’s legislature on Wednesday with support from President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party, aims to attract foreign investors to El Salvador by offering them a fast track to citizenship.

For instance, under the law, qualified investors would be exempt from the usual five-year residency requirement for naturalization – or two if the person has a Salvadoran spouse. 

The new citizenship reform cites the “vital interest” of Bukele’s development projects in attracting “altruistic foreigners interested in supporting the economic, social and cultural development of El Salvador … by donating bitcoin.”

This marks another significant step in Bukele’s effort to leverage Bitcoin to drive the country’s economic growth and development. 

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Adventure 

Under the leadership of Bukele, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender. Since then, the government has accumulated a substantial amount of cryptocurrency in its treasury through its president. 

So far, the Central American nation has spent more than $100 million on its Bitcoin investment based on Bukele’s past social media posts of the digital asset acquisitions.

In a recent tweet post, clapping back at critics who criticized El Salvador’s decision to invest in Bitcoin, Bukele stated that the country’s BTC investment is now paying off.

In his post, Bukele stated that the country’s Bitcoin investment stood at a profit worth approximately $3.6 million as of December 4.

Despite the price appreciation, Bukele noted that the country has no intention of selling its Bitcoin holdings for profit.

“Of course, we have no intention of selling; that has never been our objective,” he said.

At press time, BTC was trading at $43,699, seeing a 0.08% decline in the last 24 hours. However, the digital asset has surged 2.40% in the past week.