Mexico being lined up as next nation for full Bitcoin adoption
One of El Salvador’s most prominent advisors on the nation’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender says he is now turning his attention to Mexico.
Samson Mow, chief strategy officer with Blockstream, announced his departure from the timechain specialist which has been working on Bitcoin bonds with El Salvador’s government since November.
The country, largely driven by its enigmatic president Nayib Bukele, adopted Bitcoin as legal tender last year ahead of the widescale launch of its Chivo wallet in October.
Mow and Blockstream had been working with Bukele’s government on tokenised bonds for acquiring Bitcoin and building out energy and mining infrastructure.
With his departure to ‘focus on nation state Bitcoin adoption’, it now seems the Canadian video game developer feels Mexico is next in line to make the flagship cryptocurrency legal tender.
In a series of tweets explaining his move away from Blockstream after five years, Mow detailed how he was keen to work on further adoption projects.
When asked by a follower if Mexico would be next, Mow quickly replied with “it’s on the list”.
As ambiguous as the answer may first appear, experts are suggesting a Mexican move towards Bitcoin stands to reason.
Recently, Indira Kempis – a high-profile Mexican senator – went on record as saying she wanted to make her country second after El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin.
Nigel Green – Crypto AM columnist and CEO of deVere Group – says he expects a Bitcoin bill to be introduced to Mexico’s Congress this year.
“Mexico’s economy is highly reliant upon the US dollar as it still sends 80 per cent of its exports to the United States – this, of course, was particularly worrisome when the country was being threatened with hefty US trade tariffs,” he said.
“By adopting cryptocurrency as legal tender, Mexico would then immediately have a currency that isn’t influenced by market conditions within their own economy, nor directly from just one other country’s economy.”
Remittances as a percentage of Mexico’s GDP have almost doubled over the past decade, growing from two per cent of GDP in 2010 to 3.8 per cent in 2020, according to the government.
“Whether the senator will get the backing she needs this year is still questionable, but there’s a real sense if it doesn’t happen in 2022, it will happen within the next couple of years,” Mr Green added.