Bitcoin Adoption in El Salvador Was a ‘Complete PR Move,’ Claims TIME Reporter

• A TIME reporter, who was among the first to interview President Bukele after he inaugurated the Bitcoin law, says the entire thing was a “complete PR move.”
• She claimed that Bukele and his inner circle knew Bitcoin wasn’t meant to make a significant difference in people’s lives, but it was great optics.

The inauguration of the Bitcoin Law in El Salvador, which made BTC legal tender in the country, was celebrated across the crypto space globally as a landmark achievement in the adoption of digital assets. However, according to one reporter who has been in the loop since the beginning, it was all a publicity stunt.

It all started at the historic Bitcoin Conference in Miami in June 2021 where President Nayib Bukele announced that he intended to make BTC legal tender. Less than a week later, the Salvadorian parliament passed the law, and Bukele has been pushing the digital asset across media appearances and social media since then.

However, for years, there have been questions about whether the move had succeeded; many a people who have been to El Salvador have revealed that the move was not well received by the citizenry, most of whom don’t have the capacity to use Bitcoin.

One of the first reporters to interview President Bukele on the Bitcoin initiatives, and who has been following up the progress, has now claimed that it was all optics and that BTC never really hit the ground running.

In a recent interview, Vera Bergengruen claimed that Bukele and his top officials regarded Bitcoin purely as a rebranding event and a “complete PR move.” According to Vera, Bukele has always been big on the image of his administration, owing to his background in public relations. She stated:

I think the most important thing is his past as a publicist. It’s important to understand from Bitcoin to the war on the gangs, everything he does he’s kind of ‘image first, results later’ oriented.

If Bukele was going for a PR move, it worked brilliantly. He has become one of the most beloved leaders by the crypto universe and is often pointed at as a proof that BTC works. Crypto companies have made pledges to open offices in El Salvador (most have not made the actual move) and his Bitcoin bonds have attracted a fair bit of investment. In fact, if the world moved to a Bitcoin standard in the future, Bukele will probably play an important role.

While the PR may have worked, most people always viewed El Salvador as proof that Bitcoin can work and change people’s fortunes, which Vera disputes, stating:

Bitcoin was never really meant to be adopted to really change Salvadorans’ economic situation.

Meanwhile, BTC reclaimed the $60,000 level in the early hours today (European time), and is currently trading just above this level, bringing its weekly gains to 10.4%.