BIS Official Insists Bitcoin Fails Means of Payment Test, Calls El Salvador's BTC Law 'Interesting Experiment'

An official at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and former member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB), Benoit Coeure, insists that bitcoin has not passed the test of being a means of payment. He calls El Salvador’s move to make the cryptocurrency legal tender “an interesting experiment.”

BIS Official Doubts Bitcoin Can Function as Means of Payment in El Salvador

Benoit Coeure, head of the Innovation Hub at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), commented on El Salvador’s move to make bitcoin legal tender Friday. He said at the launch of a regulatory research hub at the Bank of England (BoE):

El Salvador, that is an interesting experiment indeed.

A member

as previously a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB). From 2013 to 2019, he chaired the BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures.

El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as its national currency, alongside the U.S. dollar, after its congress passed a bill to make the cryptocurrency legal tender Wednesday. The country is now exploring mining using energy from volcanoes.

Coeure emphasized:

We have been clear at the BIS that we don’t see bitcoin as having passed the test of being a means of payments. Bitcoin is a speculative asset and should be regulated as such.