El Salvador "Building the World's First Bitcoin City"

Securing Funds for $1 Billion Sovereign Bond Issuance

(Photo by Fox Business)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Central American country El Salvador announced that it will issue the world's first Bitcoin sovereign bond and build a "Bitcoin City" with no taxes imposed on property tax, income tax, or other taxes.

On the 20th (local time), President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador made this announcement while attending the Latin America Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference held in Misata, El Salvador, according to reports by Bloomberg and others.

El Salvador plans to issue a 10-year maturity, dollar-denominated bond worth $1 billion (approximately 1.19 trillion KRW) to fund the construction of Bitcoin City. If the bond issuance succeeds as planned, it will become the world's first Bitcoin sovereign bond.

Half of the funds raised from the bond issuance will be used to purchase Bitcoin, and the other half will be used for building power infrastructure based on volcanic geothermal energy and for Bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin City, to be built near the Conchagua volcano on the southern Pacific coast of El Salvador, will be a completely eco-friendly city with zero carbon emissions. Within the city, except for a 10% value-added tax, no other taxes such as property tax or income tax will be imposed.

El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar last September with the aim of improving the remittance system for Salvadoran immigrants in the US and other countries and activating foreign investment.

The government has previously provided Bitcoin worth $30 (approximately 36,000 KRW) per person to encourage citizens to use Bitcoin.

Samson Mow, Chief Strategy Officer of blockchain technology company Blockstream, said, "(Through this plan) El Salvador will become the financial center of the world, the Singapore of Latin America, and other countries are expected to follow."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.