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El Salvador’s Bukele Shoots Down FUD on Bitcoin Bond, Takes Issue With U.S. Lawmakers

Bitcoin

www.coindesk.com 24 March 2022 18:15, UTC

Reading time: ~2 m

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele had a busy Wednesday evening on Twitter, first responding to a report that Binance was called in to to salvage his country’s Bitcoin bond sale, and also showing his displeasure with legislation making its way through the U.S. Senate.

“Please don’t spread Reuters FUD,” tweeted Bukele late on Wednesday. He was responding to a report that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was jetting into El Salvador to take control of the country’s Bitcoin bond issuance after the sale had been delayed earlier this week.
In another tweet, Bukele confirmed the upcoming meeting with CZ, but said their discussion would be about issues unrelated to the so-called Volcano Bonds … “Unless he wants to buy some, of course,” he added.
Former Blockstream chief strategy officer and advisor on the design of the bond, Samson Mow tweeted that “nothing has changed, just delays in the new law going to congress.” Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino, whose company is managing the bond issuance, chimed in with his agreement, as did Bukele.
It was on Tuesday that El Salvador’s Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya said the country had postponed its planned $1 billion bitcoin bond offering, initially scheduled to take place between March 15-20, because of unfavorable market conditions. "I think this is not the time, there are some moves on the planet," he said.
Bukele also expressed his displeasure with goings-on in the U.S. Senate, where a bill looking to mitigate risks to the American financial system from El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin was passed out of committee on Wednesday.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the U.S. Government would be afraid of what we are doing here,” Bukele tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. “The U.S. Government DOES NOT stand for freedom and that is a proven fact,” he later added. “So we will stand for freedom … Game on!”
Recall Bukele’s memorable comments from one month ago when the bill was initially introduced: “OK boomers ... You have zero jurisdiction on a sovereign and independent nation. 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."