US Senate to consider bill examining El Salvador's Bitcoin experiment

The bill, which was passed out of committee on Wednesday, generated the displeasure of El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele.

The full U.S. Senate will vote on a bill looking to mitigate risks to the U.S. financial system from El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin as legal tender, after the bill was passed out of committee on Wednesday.

The “Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador (ACES) Act” was introduced by Sens. James Risch (R-Idaho), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on February 16.

“As El Salvador has adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, it’s important we understand and mitigate potential risks to the U.S. financial system,” Risch said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the legislation would require the State and Treasury Departments, among other federal agencias, to mitigate risks such as potential empowerment of China and organized criminal organizations.

The bill would also ask the U.S. to monitor remittances from El Salvador.

El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, expressed discontent after the bill received a committee passage.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the US Government would be afraid of what we are doing here,” he tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.

El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender last fall, launching a government-backed wallet and offering incentives for Bitcoin usage. Bukele also announced the country would raise $1 billion through a Bitcoin-backed bond issuance, though this was delayed from its initial planned launch of mid-March.