Bitfinex to Donate $1.3 Million Worth of BTC and USDT to Communities in El Salvador

The crypto exchange Bitfinex announced on Thursday that the trading platform plans to donate 36 bitcoin and $600K worth of tether tokens to help bolster communities and small businesses located in El Salvador. According to Bitfinex, the funds will initially target small businesses in Salvadoran communities located in Apopa, Ilopango, and Soyapango.

The digital currency exchange Bitfinex has detailed that the company is donating 36 bitcoin (BTC) worth just over $734K using current BTC exchange rates and 600,000 tether (USDT) to small businesses and communities in the Central American country of El Salvador.

Bitfinex said in a blog post published on Thursday that the BTC donations will be sent to the “recipients’ bitcoin wallets, including the Chivo wallets.” The $1.33 million in crypto assets will first be directed at three communities to support “a variety of projects and initiatives,” Bitfinex disclosed.

#Bitfinex has donated 36 $BTC and $600K in $USDT to help communities and small businesses in El Salvador 🎉

Let’s aim to bring prosperity and economic freedom to more communities through $BTC and Tether! https://t.co/GopIkBXQhH

— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) July 14, 2022

The funds will first target small businesses in the communities of Ilopango, Soyapango, and Apopa. “Among the ventures supported by the donations are green business initiatives employing young men to reduce pollution in lake Ilopango and clean up litter in Apopa,” the blog post details.

Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador on September 7, 2021, and the country’s government immediately started purchasing BTC that day. On July 1, 2022, Bitcoin.com News reported that the country acquired 80 BTC when the leading crypto asset dropped below $19K per unit. The Salvadoran government purchased approximately 2,381 bitcoins since the legal tender law was codified last year.

Paolo Ardoino, the CTO at Bitfinex, believes the $1.33 million in crypto assets will help Salvadoran communities that need it most. “This funding demonstrates in real-time bitcoin’s potential to bring prosperity and economic freedom,” Ardoino said in a statement on Thursday. The Bitfinex executive continued:

By providing bitcoin and tether to local communities in El Salvador, we will provide vital support to small businesses while also countering the effects of gang violence that has swept across the country.

The blog post also disclosed that Bitfinex Securities El Salvador, S.A. de C.V. is working as the “financial technology provider” for the country’s $1 billion volcano token project. The trading platform Bitfinex will provide the framework needed so the token can be traded “in efficient and liquid markets.” The token will only be available to Bitfinex Securities clientele in specific jurisdictions and U.S. residents will not be eligible.

“Ifinex Inc., the parent company of Bitfinex, is also collaborating with the Government of El Salvador to create a digital assets and securities regulatory framework to regulate, issue, and operate digitized financial instruments in El Salvador,” the company’s blog post concludes. “As well as assist in creating and implementing balanced cryptocurrency legislation and regulation on digitized financial instruments as they promote the growth of the cryptocurrency industry in El Salvador.”

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