WEBVTT - Welcome to Bitcoin Beach

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<v Speaker 1>He Bitcoin. I'm Stacy Marie Ishmael, Managing editor of Crypto

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<v Speaker 1>for Bloomberg News, and this is Bloomberg Crypto at Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg I Heart Podcast. It's Wednesday, June two. El Salvador's

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<v Speaker 1>millennial President, Naive bo Kelly, is no tourist when it

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<v Speaker 1>comes to bitcoin. Last year, under his leadership, El Salvador

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<v Speaker 1>became the first country in the world to approve bitcoin

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<v Speaker 1>as a form of legal tender. Here they approved a

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<v Speaker 1>bitcoin law in the Assembly that means if you want

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<v Speaker 1>to pay for something there, you have two currency options,

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<v Speaker 1>bitcoin or the U. S. Dollar. Since then, President Boo

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<v Speaker 1>Kelly has bought more than two thousand bitcoins using public funds,

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<v Speaker 1>and whenever there's a particularly sharp decline in the crypto market,

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<v Speaker 1>which happens pretty frequently, President Boo Kelly is fond of

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<v Speaker 1>tweeting that he's buying the dip and adding to those

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<v Speaker 1>bitcoin holdings. He doesn't appear to be stressed at all

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<v Speaker 1>by the market volatility or by the drumbeat of international organizations,

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<v Speaker 1>including the I m F, who have criticized his crypto decisions.

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<v Speaker 1>Now he's once again pitching a so called bitcoin beach

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<v Speaker 1>in the coastal town of El Zante. Joining me today

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<v Speaker 1>to talk more about the sustainability of El Salvador's bitcoin

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<v Speaker 1>strategy is report to Mike McDonald. Mike, Hello, Hi Stcy.

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<v Speaker 1>How are you? I am great? Well, So you have

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<v Speaker 1>for Bloomberg been reporting pretty extensively on El Salvador's experiments

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<v Speaker 1>with crypto and specifically bitcoin. In one of the stories

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<v Speaker 1>that you did for Markets magazine back in April, you

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<v Speaker 1>even sort of landed in the country and then spent

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<v Speaker 1>the rest of your time. They're trying to pay exclusively

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<v Speaker 1>in bitcoin. Am I remembering that correctly? That's right, That's right.

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<v Speaker 1>How did that go? Yeah, so it's it's not really

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<v Speaker 1>that easy to spend bitcoin widely in El Salvador, is

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<v Speaker 1>kind of what I found. Um. You can find some

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<v Speaker 1>places that accept it, um, but you know, it's not

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<v Speaker 1>really advertised very widely among businesses. I mean you kind

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<v Speaker 1>of have to go from business to business and ask

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<v Speaker 1>you accept bitcoin, do not accept bitcoin. Most of them

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<v Speaker 1>will tell you know that they're working on it. The

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<v Speaker 1>problems were a lot of the businesses didn't have the

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<v Speaker 1>infrastructure set up to accept it. They didn't have wallets

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<v Speaker 1>to accept bitcoin from customers. In some cases there was

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<v Speaker 1>no Internet signals, so even if they do accept bitcoin,

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<v Speaker 1>there's no way for them to actually get the wallet

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<v Speaker 1>to work because the Internet signals down. And there were

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<v Speaker 1>some businesses that also told me that they didn't want

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<v Speaker 1>to accept it because of the volatility, because they would

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<v Speaker 1>receive twenty dollars in bitcoin today and it would be

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<v Speaker 1>worth ten dollars in bitcoin tomorrow or or something like that.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's not as widespread. There are some businesses that

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<v Speaker 1>that accepted there were there have been a couple of

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<v Speaker 1>surveys out recently that show about ten to fifteen percent

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<v Speaker 1>of businesses do accept bitcoin in El Salvador. So it

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<v Speaker 1>has caught on a little bit, but it's not that

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<v Speaker 1>easy to really spend it. You know, there are a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of technical problems with the government's wallet. Chievo doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>always work properly, so some of the businesses that do

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<v Speaker 1>accept it have actually switched over to other wallets, to

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<v Speaker 1>third party wallets, which seemed to work a little bit

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<v Speaker 1>better than Chievo. So you've said a couple of interesting

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<v Speaker 1>things that I want to just tease out a little

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<v Speaker 1>And there has been this idea that if you want

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<v Speaker 1>to make your country or your state or your whatever

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<v Speaker 1>crypto friendly you just kind of like wave a magic

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<v Speaker 1>wand and voila, like bitcoin is possible. But it sounds

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<v Speaker 1>like what you're saying is there's actually a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>you know, fairly challenging operational things that folks have to

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<v Speaker 1>get over, including to your points, actually setting up the

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<v Speaker 1>software infrastructure to be able to accept bitcoin, but also

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<v Speaker 1>things that you can't individually solved, like internet access right exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>And you know, El Salvador is a country where most

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<v Speaker 1>businesses are small and medium sized businesses. There are a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of mom and pop shops in El Salvador, so

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<v Speaker 1>for them, the learning curve for setting this up is

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<v Speaker 1>pretty big, so um a lot of them, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>they just don't have the technology. The one person who

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<v Speaker 1>thinks bitcoin should catch on a lot faster is, of course,

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<v Speaker 1>the country's president, Nai bu Kelly. I don't know what

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<v Speaker 1>the exciting number, but I would think around five million

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<v Speaker 1>SAVA build right now. Can you tell us a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit more about him? I feel like whenever I see

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<v Speaker 1>him or he's in a news conference, he's always wearing

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<v Speaker 1>like a backward flipped baseball cap or you know, trying

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<v Speaker 1>to emphasize his youthful, millennial nous. But what is he

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<v Speaker 1>like as a president and what's his perception in the country. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>he's um. He you know, he broke with um sort

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<v Speaker 1>of two party rule in El Salvador that had you know,

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<v Speaker 1>there were these two political parties that had ruled the

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<v Speaker 1>country for a long time, and he broke away from

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<v Speaker 1>one of those parties and formed his own party. He

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<v Speaker 1>came into power as an outsider, promising to change government. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, he has a bit of a populist stance

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<v Speaker 1>towards a lot of different policy issues. You know, there

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<v Speaker 1>are a lot of people on a Salado are really

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<v Speaker 1>tired of the two party rule and what seemed like

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<v Speaker 1>gridlock in government, and so he came in promising to

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<v Speaker 1>break that with this sort of hip new look. He

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<v Speaker 1>kind of has this cool vibe. I think even his

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<v Speaker 1>Twitter feed at one point said like the coolest president

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<v Speaker 1>in the world or something like that. So, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>he he is a bit different in the way he governs.

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<v Speaker 1>He is quite popular in El Salvador. Actually not because

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<v Speaker 1>of bitcoin, because most of the Salvadorians have said in

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<v Speaker 1>the surveys we've seen that they don't want bitcoin in

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<v Speaker 1>the country. But he's really popular because he's built hospitals

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<v Speaker 1>in rural areas where there were no hospitals before. He's

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<v Speaker 1>built schools in rural areas where there's no schools before.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, he has a lot of social programs and

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<v Speaker 1>social spending, you know, food rations, monthly food rations for

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<v Speaker 1>really poor families. He's cracked down on violence and gangs

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<v Speaker 1>in El Salvador, which is a sort of a top

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<v Speaker 1>concern among voters. So he's been able to tackle those

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<v Speaker 1>issues and not just pushback like protests. Right. You've reported

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<v Speaker 1>on his political ponents using the opposition to bitcoin in

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<v Speaker 1>the country as a way to try to re establish

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<v Speaker 1>themselves a bit. We had some attacks of the opposition.

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<v Speaker 1>Believe it or not, we have an opposition and they're started,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, complaining about bitcoin, and they started miss for

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<v Speaker 1>the misinformation to the people, telling a bitcoin was bad

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<v Speaker 1>and you know, you shouldn't use that currency because you

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<v Speaker 1>know it's invisible, you cannot see it. But they're free

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<v Speaker 1>to do it. That's good. Also, free countries. They can protest,

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<v Speaker 1>they can you know, burn a d MS. Fine. We've

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<v Speaker 1>demonstrated that bitcoin could do a lot of good things.

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<v Speaker 1>So the opposition parties have sort of found in this

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<v Speaker 1>bitcoin issue sort of a rallying call um, if you will,

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<v Speaker 1>sort of an issue that they can sort of push

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<v Speaker 1>against blu Kelly with because they know that the population

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<v Speaker 1>isn't really on board with using bitcoin, at least on

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<v Speaker 1>a large I mean, there are a few people here

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<v Speaker 1>and there that you can find that that do enjoy it,

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<v Speaker 1>but but you know, between sixty and seventy percent of

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<v Speaker 1>the population, according to the polls that we've seen, don't

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<v Speaker 1>like the idea of using bitcoin is legal tender. So

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<v Speaker 1>it is something that the opposition has sort of grabbed

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<v Speaker 1>on too and and are sort of using it to

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<v Speaker 1>push back against his government with. So he's got seventies

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<v Speaker 1>eight percent approval ratings except for the overwhelming majority of

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<v Speaker 1>people who are like, please no Bitcoin go away. How

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<v Speaker 1>much of this is affected by the fact that al

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<v Speaker 1>Salvador is betting on bitcoin is currently losing the country money.

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<v Speaker 1>I think that's a big part of it. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>the problem was so in September last year, bitcoin was

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<v Speaker 1>nearer record high. It was between fifty and sixty thousand

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<v Speaker 1>dollars a coin, and I think it hit uh Rich

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<v Speaker 1>reached the sixty nine thousand dollars per coin at one point,

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<v Speaker 1>so and it's basically come down ever since then. So,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, they kind of adopted bitcoin is legal tender

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<v Speaker 1>almost at its peak high, and a lot of people

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<v Speaker 1>that downloaded the wallet and started using it have seen

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<v Speaker 1>their money deteriorated, seen a lot losses pile up, and

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<v Speaker 1>just there have been reports coming out of Al Salvador

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<v Speaker 1>where businesses that used to advertise that they accept bitcoin

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<v Speaker 1>with like little signs in their windows and stuff are

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<v Speaker 1>actually taking those signs down. I mean, it wasn't widespreads

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<v Speaker 1>I don't think it's having a really broad impact in

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<v Speaker 1>the economy. El Salvador's plans for a billion dollar bitcoin

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<v Speaker 1>bond sent the nation's dollar denominated debt to an all

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<v Speaker 1>time low. Investor is worried that President Nayam Bokele is

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<v Speaker 1>moved to sell sovereign bitcoin bonds closes the door and

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<v Speaker 1>a deal with the i m F. The fund is

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<v Speaker 1>repeatedly criticized because it's policies, including the adoption of bitcoin

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<v Speaker 1>as legal tender. The other way this is affecting folks,

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<v Speaker 1>is you know, El Salvador is not super popular with

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<v Speaker 1>the I m F at the moment, I think that's

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<v Speaker 1>safe to say, because they were trying to propose this

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<v Speaker 1>bitcoin backed bond, which would be one of the first,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, sovereign or state related bonds ever issued that

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<v Speaker 1>had bitcoin backing on it. That bond has still not

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<v Speaker 1>been issued. They've blown past the deadlines that they said

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<v Speaker 1>they were gonna they do this by You've also reported

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<v Speaker 1>in the meantime that they may be struggling to make

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<v Speaker 1>their coupon payments on their other debt that's not backed

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<v Speaker 1>by bitcoin. So it does seem like this grand experiment

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<v Speaker 1>has been perhaps more challenging than they were expecting. Right,

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<v Speaker 1>They have gotten a lot of blowback from the multi ladders,

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<v Speaker 1>especially the IMF. I mean, last year they were negotiating

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<v Speaker 1>an IMF program and when they adopted bitcoin, that really

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<v Speaker 1>angered the I m F, and the I m F

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<v Speaker 1>has urged them to drop bitcoin is legal tender um

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<v Speaker 1>and so that they haven't gotten the I m F

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<v Speaker 1>program that they announced a year ago that they were

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<v Speaker 1>pursuing um. You know, that was a one point three

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<v Speaker 1>billion dollar program. Some of the other multilateral lenders have

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<v Speaker 1>been hesitant to lend to them because of this. So

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<v Speaker 1>there has been a lot of pushback that sort of

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<v Speaker 1>has prevented them from getting access. The perception among investors

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<v Speaker 1>is that El Salvador is an extremely risky country to

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<v Speaker 1>be investing in right now, and there are a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of questions as to whether or not they're willing to pay.

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<v Speaker 1>So the risk perception of government bonds is incredibly high

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<v Speaker 1>right now, and as a result, the government has has

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<v Speaker 1>really lost access to international debt markets which could help

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<v Speaker 1>finance government operations. Thank you so much, Mike. We'll be

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<v Speaker 1>right back. We're also going to talk about bitcoin beach.

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<v Speaker 1>So you know, I'm really struggling and I have been

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<v Speaker 1>struggling with this. El Salvado started for a while in

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<v Speaker 1>that the Macroe canomic fundamentals don't seem great, the crypto

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<v Speaker 1>fundamentals don't seem great. Boo. Kelly's popularity quite good, not

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<v Speaker 1>so great when you introduce crypto into the equation. But

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<v Speaker 1>he's plowing ahead with multiple different initiatives and does seem

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<v Speaker 1>really personally committed to having El Salvador and bitcoin always

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<v Speaker 1>be associated in a sentence, Can you say a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit more about what this supposed bitcoin beaches. Bitcoin beach

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<v Speaker 1>is sort of the pilot project where this all started.

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<v Speaker 1>It was kind of a private initiative. It was a

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<v Speaker 1>private donor that donated some money to this small little

0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.240
<v Speaker 1>beach town in El Salvador called El Sante. It's a

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<v Speaker 1>really tiny town. It's popular with surfers because they have

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<v Speaker 1>some pretty big waves there. Um, but you know, it's

0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.679
<v Speaker 1>a small town with really small businesses, a couple of

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<v Speaker 1>small hotels. And they started this pilot projects around eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>where they sort of launched their own bitcoin wallets and

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<v Speaker 1>tried to sort of incorporate bitcoin into the local economy.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's kind of where it's kind of where it

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<v Speaker 1>all started. You know. You go there and um, you

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<v Speaker 1>know the little you know convenience stores will accept bitcoin

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<v Speaker 1>in exchange for you know, a can of pringles and

0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:27.920
<v Speaker 1>and things like that, where you can pay for a

0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.360
<v Speaker 1>surf lesson in bitcoin, um, you know, one of the

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<v Speaker 1>local surf instructors. So Bitcoin Beach is kind of where

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<v Speaker 1>it all started, and and Boo Kelly kind of wanted

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<v Speaker 1>to take it national nationwide from there. It's just a

0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.040
<v Speaker 1>sleepy little town where this this experiment began and it

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<v Speaker 1>sort of served as a as a pilot project for

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<v Speaker 1>what Boo Kelly is doing now, but you are our investor.

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<v Speaker 1>There's all over the world when you post something on

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<v Speaker 1>your Instagram account or in your Twitter, your phrasebook, everybody

0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.000
<v Speaker 1>that follows you, everybody and that admires you, everybody that

0:11:57.160 --> 0:11:59.880
<v Speaker 1>wants a bill like you. We'll be We'll be seeing

0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.440
<v Speaker 1>our country. I will be seeing our waves and our beaches,

0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.160
<v Speaker 1>and we're seeing all other things we have to offer.

0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:10.760
<v Speaker 1>In a sense, would you say the pilot project has

0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:15.959
<v Speaker 1>been more successful perhaps than the more widespread it option,

0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.000
<v Speaker 1>because it does sound like if I can pay my

0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:19.800
<v Speaker 1>serf lessons in bitcoin, but if I go into the

0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.840
<v Speaker 1>capital and nobody will take my crypto, I might just

0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:24.280
<v Speaker 1>hang out in the on the beach all the time.

0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.400
<v Speaker 1>I mean me personally, and I don't know what other

0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.040
<v Speaker 1>people might do. Yeah, in a way it has been

0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.360
<v Speaker 1>I guess also because Bitcoin Beaches is touristy and it's

0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.760
<v Speaker 1>really popular with tourists um and there's this sort of

0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:36.880
<v Speaker 1>whole whole marketing campaign that goes along with it, so

0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.480
<v Speaker 1>there is kind of a draw for people who are

0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.000
<v Speaker 1>really into crypto and bitcoin to show up there. So

0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.800
<v Speaker 1>on a small scale and a very tiny town like that,

0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.480
<v Speaker 1>it's popular with foreign tourists that may be more adept

0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.800
<v Speaker 1>at spending bitcoin it. It seems to work a little

0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.600
<v Speaker 1>bit better. But when you expand it to a national

0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:55.439
<v Speaker 1>scale and take it to places like Saint Salvator, which

0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.600
<v Speaker 1>is a really large city with lots of different types

0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.440
<v Speaker 1>of businesses, it doesn't really seem to work well. But

0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.240
<v Speaker 1>Bitcoin Beach a lot of the businesses will take it there.

0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.800
<v Speaker 1>You can buype pooses, which are these little um you know,

0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.679
<v Speaker 1>filled the cheese in in bitcoin at Bitcoin Beach, so

0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.000
<v Speaker 1>you know, some of the small vendors there seem a

0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:14.640
<v Speaker 1>little bit more comfortable with it, and some of the

0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:16.760
<v Speaker 1>foreign tourists that come seemed to be a little bit

0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:18.800
<v Speaker 1>more comfortable with with spending it as well. So it

0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:20.280
<v Speaker 1>does seem to work a little bit better on a

0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.640
<v Speaker 1>on a much smaller micro scale, in in a place

0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.880
<v Speaker 1>like Bitcoin Beach. And there are a few different examples

0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:30.320
<v Speaker 1>around the world of these you know, little crypto on clips,

0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.360
<v Speaker 1>like folks may have heard of zoog in Switzerland, that's

0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.880
<v Speaker 1>definitely one of them. There are absolutely pockets of San

0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.200
<v Speaker 1>Francisco and Silicon Valley where you know, you can get

0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:42.920
<v Speaker 1>bitcoin or or other kinds of crypto accepted for things.

0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:49.720
<v Speaker 1>But El Salvador was supposedly the national model for how

0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.960
<v Speaker 1>accepting a token like this at scale would work. And

0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.360
<v Speaker 1>you know, from everything that you've been reporting and others

0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.520
<v Speaker 1>have been reporting, it does seem that that calculus may

0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.719
<v Speaker 1>have been more challenging than they were expecting. But there

0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.120
<v Speaker 1>are other folks who are like, yeah, but give it time, right,

0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.079
<v Speaker 1>which which is always the conversation. It's always been less

0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:12.359
<v Speaker 1>than a year. Markets have been historically pretty pretty volatile.

0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.160
<v Speaker 1>There are other considerations at play, and some of those

0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.040
<v Speaker 1>considerations that folks will mention is, you know, particularly in

0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.360
<v Speaker 1>many lots time economies, as things like inflation, it's worries

0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.880
<v Speaker 1>about the the independence of the central bank, which is

0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:31.080
<v Speaker 1>certainly an issue in El Salvador. Are you seeing other countries,

0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:33.280
<v Speaker 1>even if they're a little bit worried about what El

0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.440
<v Speaker 1>Salvadore is going through, thinking about ways in which crypto

0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.280
<v Speaker 1>might make sense for them. Yeah, we are in different ways.

0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.120
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's not always that countries are considering doing

0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.080
<v Speaker 1>exactly what El Salvadore is what did, which is adopting

0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.640
<v Speaker 1>bitcoin is legal tender. But there are you know, El

0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.480
<v Speaker 1>Salvador is in kind of a unique position, and that

0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.120
<v Speaker 1>it's a dollarized economy, so it doesn't really print its

0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.840
<v Speaker 1>own money, and so a lot of the inflation is

0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:59.080
<v Speaker 1>imported from abroad from the US because they can't really

0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:00.960
<v Speaker 1>control their own money. So line, but you know, there

0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.520
<v Speaker 1>are different countries. We've seen some countries in the Caribbean

0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:08.440
<v Speaker 1>start to experiment with not necessarily bitcoin and decentralized finance,

0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.359
<v Speaker 1>but sort of actually centralized crypto central bank digital currencies,

0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.200
<v Speaker 1>stable coins and things like that. There was there's really

0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.160
<v Speaker 1>there was recently a bill passed in in Panama, which

0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.200
<v Speaker 1>is also a dollarized economy, to sort of make Panama

0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.840
<v Speaker 1>a more crypto friendly environment and allow exchanges to come

0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.640
<v Speaker 1>in and get licenses easily to operate their countries. In Africa,

0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:33.400
<v Speaker 1>we've seen move to adopt cryptocurrencies as legal tender. So

0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:35.600
<v Speaker 1>it is something that's spreading, maybe not to the extreme

0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.080
<v Speaker 1>that El salvad Or is where you actually declare one

0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:42.080
<v Speaker 1>cryptocurrency actual legal tender, but I think it is you know,

0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.400
<v Speaker 1>sort of the fundamentals of cryptocurrency and and sort of

0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.720
<v Speaker 1>using different sort of blockchain technology in national economies. I

0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.160
<v Speaker 1>think I think there there are technocrats that are looking

0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.360
<v Speaker 1>at it and discussing it and trying to figure out

0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.200
<v Speaker 1>what are the best ways and what are the best

0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.480
<v Speaker 1>elements of this that we can implement in our countries.

0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.840
<v Speaker 1>So it is sort of an ongoing conversation, especially among

0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.040
<v Speaker 1>emerging market economies, um, you know, especially like all Salvador

0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:08.840
<v Speaker 1>and Panama and and and countries that you know don't

0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.760
<v Speaker 1>really control their own money supply dollarized economies and and

0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.000
<v Speaker 1>other and other places like that, or places to where

0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:18.280
<v Speaker 1>inflation is extremely high. You know, we've seen case in Argentina,

0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:22.600
<v Speaker 1>for example, where there's really no central government push for cryptocurrency,

0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:24.960
<v Speaker 1>but there's you know, individuals have sort of taken in

0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.600
<v Speaker 1>upon themselves to get into cryptocurrency just because inflation rate

0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.680
<v Speaker 1>is so high and there are extreme capital controls. In

0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.000
<v Speaker 1>in Argentina, you can only withdraw two hundred dollars a

0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.920
<v Speaker 1>month in U S dollars from a bank. Venezuela is

0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.760
<v Speaker 1>another example of that. So there are countries in Latin

0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.520
<v Speaker 1>America where inflation is such a problem and currency depreciation

0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.560
<v Speaker 1>is such a problem that individuals are just getting into

0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.960
<v Speaker 1>crypto on their own because they figure, well, I can

0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:53.560
<v Speaker 1>lose on the national currency or you know, lose or

0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.440
<v Speaker 1>gain ten percent and in cryptocurrency, so so you are

0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.800
<v Speaker 1>starting to see that sort of on on people's personal level.

0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.920
<v Speaker 1>Pick up, well, thank you that was such an interesting

0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.359
<v Speaker 1>and helpful tour of the reality of what it means

0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.720
<v Speaker 1>to accept legal tender in a country like alsabad or

0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:10.760
<v Speaker 1>Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you stay.

0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.600
<v Speaker 1>You can find more of Mike's reporting on the Bloomberg

0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.719
<v Speaker 1>Terminal on Bloomberg dot com or follow him on Twitter.

0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:26.399
<v Speaker 1>He's at m d McDonald. If you've been watching sports lately,

0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:28.560
<v Speaker 1>and I know many of you have, you may have

0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.879
<v Speaker 1>noticed something different with your favorite sports teams. From the

0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.560
<v Speaker 1>Miami Heat to the Philadelphia seventy six is America's favorite

0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.760
<v Speaker 1>sports teams are now receiving sponsorships from major cryptocurrency companies.

0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.920
<v Speaker 1>In tomorrow's episode, we'll take a look at these sponsorships

0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.680
<v Speaker 1>and what may happen if your favorite team makes a

0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:52.520
<v Speaker 1>risky deal with a volatile token. I'm Stacy Marie Ishmael,

0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:56.200
<v Speaker 1>and this is Bloomberg Crypto, a daily podcast from Bloomberg

0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.200
<v Speaker 1>and I Heart Radio. For more shows from I Heart Radio,

0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.840
<v Speaker 1>visit the out radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.560
<v Speaker 1>get your podcasts. Email your questions, comments, and suggestions for

0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:10.240
<v Speaker 1>the show to Crypto at Bloomberg dot net. You'll find

0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:14.840
<v Speaker 1>us on Twitter at Crypto. The supervising producer of this

0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.320
<v Speaker 1>episode is Vicky very Galina. Our producer is Mohammed Farouk.

0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.480
<v Speaker 1>Associate producer is Zan Absidiki Desto wonder At is our engineer.

0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.240
<v Speaker 1>Original music by Leo Sidron. Bloomberg's Head of podcast is

0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:27.040
<v Speaker 1>Francesca Levi