El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, taunted popular crypto antagonist Peter Schiff on X yesterday after the economist made a lousy comment about his post on the profitability of the country’s Bitcoin bag. Bukele told Schiff to “cry harder,” as the latter told him to talk about the gains from the country’s Bitcoin exposure only when it has realized them.
It all started when Bukele made an X post addressing the FUD his administration received when it adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender and a reserve store. The newly-reelected president noted that “they wrote literally thousands of articles about our supposed losses” when Bitcoin bottomed at $16,000 in 2022.
When #Bitcoin’s market price was low, they wrote literally thousands of articles about our supposed losses.
Now that #Bitcoin’s market price is way up, if we were to sell, we would make a profit of over 40% (just from the market purchases), and our main source of BTC is now our…
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 28, 2024
Portfolio up 40%
Bukele revealed that the country would make a 40% profit if it sold the bitcoin it bought at the current market price. El Salvador has 2,381 BTC acquired at an average price of $44,292. That would mean the country is sitting on an unrealized gain of nearly $42 million.
The El Salvador president also revealed that its primary source of Bitcoin was through its citizenship program. In December, the country started a program that offers expedited citizenship to foreigners who donate Bitcoin to the government.
Furthermore, Bukele noted that the country does not intend to sell its bitcoin, alleging that 1 BTC always equals 1 BTC no matter how high inflation gets. He then took a swipe at “the authors of those hit pieces, the “analysts,” the “experts,” the “journalists” for spreading lies against the country, one of which may have attracted Schiff.
More Antagonists Weep as Bitcoin Rips
Peter Schiff was not the only one disturbed by Bitcoin’s bullish rally; presenter Jim Cramer seemed to have expressed anguish in a show on Wednesday where he discussed Bitcoin’s price with his co-host.
“It’s depressing; what has Bitcoin ever done for mankind?” Cramer asked his co-host.
The reaction came after Bitcoin hit $61,000, a price last seen since 2021. The currency continued a bullish uptrend as increased inflow from ETFs and other macroeconomics pushed it past $60,000. At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $62,285 with a market cap of $1.2 trillion.
