On a recent visit to Sri Lanka, the American billionaire Tim Draper floated the idea of adopting bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender to fight corruption which contributed to hyperinflation in the island country. However, a key Sri Lankan official – central bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe – believes that doing so would worsen the country’s economic situation.
Taking advantage of a television shoot in Sri Lanka, Draper met with Chairman Ranil Wickremesinghe and Weerasinghe to recommend bitcoin as a viable way out of financial trouble..
During the meeting, Draper noted a key concern that directly concerns Sri Lanka:
“Have you seen Sri Lanka on the news? It is known as the capital of corruption. A country known for its corruption will be able to keep perfect records with bitcoin adoption.”
In recommending the use of “decentralized currency” to the director of the central bank of Sri Lanka, received a terse “we don’t accept” response. Weerasinghe further stated that:
“100% bitcoin adoption will never be a reality in Sri Lanka.”
Instead, Weerasinghe considered that having Sri Lanka’s own fiat currency was critical for monetary policy independence and would ensure efficient inclusion and disbursement of electronic social assistance payments.
“We don’t want to make the crisis worse by introducing bitcoin,” Weerasinghe concluded.
MicroStrategya software analytics company co-founded by Michael Saylor, shared plans to continue offering BTC trading services despite incurring a $1.3 billion unrealized loss in 2022.
During a February 2 conference call, MicroStrategy CFO Andrew Kang said:
“We may consider making additional transactions that may take advantage of bitcoin price volatility, or other market dislocations that are consistent with our long-term bitcoin strategy.”
According to Kang, MicroStrategy owned 132,500 BTC (worth $1.84 billion) on December 31, 2022. Of the batch, 14,890 BTC were held directly by the company and the rest by its affiliate MacroStrategy.
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