Bitcoin is making its way into 2022 with a series of bullish predictions by the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.
In his Twitter channel, Bukele predicted “2 more countries will adopt it as legal tender.” Furthermore, the El Salvador President made a bold Bitcoin price prediction, noting that in 2022 the world’s largest cryptocurrency would reach a price point of $100,000 per unit.
Nigel Green of deVere Group, one of the world’s leading independent financial advisory and fintech organizations added that he is “confident that the young, maverick President Bukele, is correct about other countries adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2022.”
However, Green also noted that “it’s likely three more nations will follow El Salvador’s pioneering, future-focused lead into the digital age.”
According to Green, low-income countries have long suffered from weak domestic currencies and are extremely vulnerable to market changes, which could trigger rampant inflation. The deVere boss added that the reliance on another nation’s currency comes at the cost of other problems. For instance, a strong U.S. dollar might provide immense pressure to emerging markets, since countries often take much dollar-denominated debt.
The cure, according to Green, is adopting cryptocurrency as legal tender, since cryptos are not directly influenced by market conditions within their own economy, nor directly from just another country’s economy.
“Bitcoin operates on a global scale and therefore is impacted by wider, global economic changes,” Green noted.
After the Bukele tweet, many Bitcoin proponents placed their opinions about which nations they believe would be likely to do so. These included Tonga, Turkey, and Bolivia. Others suggested that countries, including Panama, Paraguay, Guatemala, and Honduras, could also adopt Bitcoin due to their heavy reliance on remittance services.
Congressman Gabriel Silva tweeted that “just after El Salvador’s adoption back in September, Panama announced a bill to make the cryptocurrency legal tender in the country.”
Other central banks like those of Honduras and Guatemala are also considering adopting cryptocurrencies, but they may be taking a different route.
“They’re currently studying central bank digital currencies (CBDC). This demonstrates, again, that they too are confident that the future of money is digital. However, I think they will ultimately embrace an existing cryptocurrency as a legal tender, as El Salvador has done,” Green concluded.