U.S Senators James Risch, Bob Menendez, and Bill Cassidy had introduced a bill titled “Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador Act” (ACES Act) on Feb 16. El Salvador’s president finally expressed his disappointment with the bill on twitter.
What ticked off the El Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, was that the bill asked the Senator of State and relevant Federal agencies to submit a plan to “mitigate any potential risk to the United States financial system posed by the adoption of a cryptocurrency as legal tender.”
The plan has to be submitted 90 days after an initial assessment report. “As El Salvador has adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, it’s important we understand and mitigate potential risks to the U.S. financial system” James Risch said in a statement.
Nayib Bukele tweeted in response “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the US Government would be afraid of what we are doing here.”
The ACES Act looks into the implications and consequences of the adoption of bitcoin as the legal tender in El Salvador, on the U.S dollar.
The bill asks the Senator of State and other relevant Federal departments and agencies to submit a report within 60 days of the enactment of the Act.
The report asks for a complete assessment of the regulatory framework of El Salvador with respect to the adoption of cryptocurrency as a legal tender, whether the regulatory framework in El Salvador meets the requirements of the Financial Task Force in this regard and several other nuanced details.
The report also asks for an assessment of the flow of remittances from the United States to El Salvador and the potential use of cryptocurrency to circumvent U.S. sanctions.
El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender in June of last year and has been resilient about its decision. Even the IMF asked El Salvador to reconsider its decision due to the risks linked with Bitcoin and Bitcoin-bonds. The president, however, refused to listen.
