(AFP) – Bitcoin enthusiasts seeking to turn a mountain town in El Salvador into a cryptocurrency haven hope that US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House will boost their cause. At one of the many cafes in the municipality of Berlin that accepts cryptocurrency, barista Marcela Flores sees “good times” ahead.
“With Trump’s election and everything he recently said about bitcoin, we hope that bitcoin will grow,” the 43-year-old told AFP. “Welcome to Bitcoin Berlin,” says a sign at the entrance to the picturesque town surrounded by coffee plantations. Located 110 kilometers (68 miles) east of the capital San Salvador, Berlin has emerged as a rival to El Zonte, the surf town nicknamed “Bitcoin Beach.” The cryptocurrency’s sign is a common sight around Berlin. More than 100 businesses—home to about 18,000 inhabitants—accept bitcoin, including shops, hotels, grocery stores, bars, restaurants, and gas stations.
In 2021, El Salvador became the world’s first country to establish bitcoin as legal tender, at the initiative of President Nayib Bukele, one of the country’s most fervent cryptocurrency enthusiasts. The gang-busting leader recently said he expected Trump’s presidency would bring “an exponential revaluation” of bitcoin. Trump has vowed to deregulate the sector and make the United States the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world.” Since his election in November, bitcoin has soared by around 50 percent in value, topping $100,000.
Charlie Stevens, a 28-year-old Berlin resident from Ireland, said that Bukele understood that bitcoin “will serve as our way of exchanging, saving, and valuing things.” “Now Trump is realizing that if you don’t join, you will lose or be left behind,” he added.
– ‘Bitcoin community center’ –
Gerardo Linares, 32, left San Salvador in 2023 and moved to Berlin with the idea of promoting the use of bitcoin and “educating” merchants and customers about it. The town now has a “bitcoin community center,” where Linares and others hold training workshops and record podcasts. “We started making a bit of noise on social media (and) foreigners started coming,” Linares told AFP at the center, which offers classes in English and computer skills as well as using bitcoin.
About 20 bitcoin enthusiasts from France, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland came to live in the city and collaborate with the project. “I live in a Bitcoin standard: I get paid in bitcoin” and “I spend bitcoin here,” said Frenchman Quentin Ehrenmann, 28, who arrived in October 2023.
But not everyone is as enthusiastic: around 92 percent of Salvadorans did not use bitcoin in 2024, according to a survey by the Central American University. “We see a disconnect between what people think about the crypto asset,” and how authorities promote it, said Laura Andrade, director of the university’s Public Opinion Institute. Independent economist Cesar Villalona argues that bitcoin is unstable and only serves “for speculation.” Bukele’s project to create Bitcoin City, a futuristic metropolis financed by cryptocurrency bonds, has not materialized.
But in Berlin, cryptocurrency aficionados still see bitcoin as the future. In a downtown park, Julio Ernesto Cruz, 53, sells crafts including a green wooden parrot with a bitcoin symbol hanging from its beak. The 53-year-old said that using the cryptocurrency had been “very positive” for him. “We believe that bitcoin is the solution to achieving economic independence,” he said.
– Carlos Mario Marquez
© 2024 AFP
