Bitcoin Will Become a Legal Tender in Paraguay in July

Paraguay may become a second country to make Bitcoin a legal means of payment on a national level. The first country was El Salvador.

On June 9, 2021, the El Salvador congress passed the law making Bitcoin a legal currency alongside USD. The move is criticized by many as the law in El Salvador puts a lot of pressure on merchants obliging them to accept Bitcoin regardless if they want to or not. However, proponents of the legislation say that Bitcoin has already become a popular means of payment and self-finance before it was legal. The "unbanked" citizens of El Salvador have finally got an opportunity to send money. So the law supporters are saluting the acceptance of Bitcoin by the government. A Trust fund is prepared to address the problem of price volatility while the payments are settled.

Currently, Paraguay lawmaker Carlos Rejala and his colleagues are working to make Bitcoin a legal tender in their country. According to Rejala, in July Paraguay will start accepting cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, Shibu Inu, and Chiliz. On July 14 the draft legislation will be introduced to the public. Rejala sees Paraguay as a future Bitcoin hub for investors from all over the world. So he seeks to prepare a legislative basis for a positive environment for cryptocurrency business. A CEO of a Paraguayan crypto exchange Bitcoin.com.py Juanjo Benitez Rickmann is working with Rejala to develop the best laws for making Paraguay an international crypto hub.

What makes Paraguay special is that almost all of the electric energy in the country is coming from renewable sources. It makes the Bitcoin business look better in the eyes of environmentalists criticizing Bitcoin for being too anti-ecological. Paraguayan Bitcoin mining enterprises won't do much harm to nature. At the same time, the taxes in this country are low. It can be the second serious reason for foreign investors to consider investing in the Paraguayan crypto industry. Of course, the latter will only grow bigger as a result of legislation.

In contrast to El Salvador where the law was supported by the country leader and the Congress in Paraguay the main supporter of the new law, Rejala, is a member of the party that holds only 2.5% of the Congress seats. So the decision over the cryptocurrency law in Paraguay may take much longer than in El Salvador. We don't know if his initiative has strong support in the Paraguayan parliament. What we know is that in Latin America in general and in Paraguay cryptocurrencies are used more than in many other regions. In these countries adoption of cryptocurrencies becomes a natural process. Dozens of Paraguayan companies have already announced that they are going to start accepting Bitcoin as a payment in July 2021. It makes us optimistic for the future of the draft legislation in Paraguay.