By FintechNews staff
–El Salvador became the first government in the world to accept bitcoin as legal tender after the country’s Congress adopted President Nayib Bukele’s request to embrace the cryptocurrency on June 9, 2021, a decision that was welcomed by Bitcoin advocates. Paraguay could become the second country after El Salvador to declare Bitcoin legal tender, according to a story published by The Cryptonomist.
The proposed bill will reportedly delve into the possibility of bitcoin becoming an official currency in the country.
“The purpose of this draft law is to establish legal certainty, financial and fiscal in the businesses derived from the production and commercialization of virtual assets,” the bill says.
The bill is under discussion in the Senate and could cover both the taxing and regulation of cryptocurrency.
Additionally, it could also go into regulating crypto mining and trading on peer-to-peer exchanges and markets where participants would have to register as “obligated entities.”
The South American countries have been more open to adopting Bitcoin because they believe that it may give them an advantage over other nations and help them emerge as next financial powers. However, the process to make Bitcoin legal tender won’t be as smooth as it sounds. Even El Salvador has had its challenges.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier raised economic concerns with respect to the plans El Salvador has to make Bitcoin a legal tender, the World Bank denied the country any help to implement the cryptocurrency in its monetary system.
The news in Paraguay comes after the country’s largest entertainment holding company, Grupo Cinco, announced that it would begin accepting cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether as payment.
