US House Bill Seeks to Study El Salvador’s ‘Careless Gamble’ on Bitcoin

Two US members of Congress introduced a companion bill to the House of Representatives on Monday seeking to “mitigate the risks” posed to their country by El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender last year.

The Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador (ACES) bill, which follows similar legislation introduced to the Senate in February, directs the State Department to produce an analysis of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law.

Following the Senate bill, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele lashed out labelling three US senators “boomers” and directed them to to stay out of his country’s “internal affairs.”

“We are not your colony, your back yard or your front yard. Stay out of our internal affairs. Don’t try to control something you can’t control,” Bukele tweeted at the time. 

El Salvador officially recognized bitcoin as legal tender on Sept. 7 following a passage of the country’s Bitcoin Law through the Legislative Assembly back in June 2021. The move was praised by crypto proponents around the world while being viewed as a threat to financial stability by others including the International Monetary Fund.

Introduced to the House floor by representatives Norma Torres (D-Calif.) and Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), the bill also seeks to analyze the risks relating to cybersecurity, global economic stability and democratic governance posed by the Latin American nation’s decision.

A plan to mitigate potential risks to the US’s financial system will also be drawn up should the bill garner enough votes to pass through the legislature.

“El Salvador is an independent democracy and we respect its right to self-govern but the United States must have a plan in place to protect our financial systems from the risks of this decision, which appears to be a careless gamble rather than a thoughtful embrace of innovation,” said Congresswoman Torres in a statement.

The ACES bills will need to pass through both the US House and Senate before it is approved into law by President Joe Biden or vetoed entirely.

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