President Nayib Bukele told a huge crowd at Bitcoin Week in El Salvador on Saturday night that El Salvador, the only country where bitcoin is legal tender, is planning to build an entire city based on the largest cryptocurrency.
“Bitcoin City” will be built near a volcano along the Gulf of Fonseca. According to the president, the government plans to build a power plant near the volcano to provide energy for both the city and bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin City will be a full-fledged metropolis, according to Bukele, with residential and commercial areas, restaurants, an airport, a port, and rail service. The city will be laid out in a circle (like a coin), with a plaza in the heart of the city housing a massive bitcoin symbol. There will be no taxes on income, property, capital gains, or payroll in the city.
El Salvador also plans to issue a $1 billion US “bitcoin bond,” a tokenized financial instrument created by Blockstream, on the Liquid Network, according to Bukele. $500 million will be used to help build needed energy and bitcoin mining infrastructure, and $500 million will be used to purchase even more bitcoin. On the cryptocurrency market, El Salvador will become “the Singapore of Latin America,” Mow said.
