El Salvador plans to build a “Bitcoin City” and use $500 million of a planned $1 billion bond offering to buy more cryptocurrency.
El Salvador, the only country where bitcoin is legal cash, plans to develop an entire city based on the largest cryptocurrency, according to President Nayib Bukele, who spoke during Bitcoin Week in El Salvador on Saturday night.
“Bitcoin City” will be built beside a volcano along the Gulf of Fonseca. According to the president, the government aims to build a power plant near the volcano to supply electricity for both the city and bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin City will be a full-fledged city, according to Bukele, featuring residential and commercial sectors, restaurants, an airport, a port, and rail service. The city will be set out in a circular (like a coin), with a plaza in the heart of the city housing a massive bitcoin sign. There will be no taxes on income, property, capital gains, or payroll in the city.
El Salvador also aims 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 spent to assist build critical energy and bitcoin mining infrastructure, and $500 million will be used to purchase even more bitcoin. That would raise the country’s treasury hoard to just under 2,000 bitcoins, based on the cryptocurrency’s latest market price of over $59,000.
El Salvador plans to pass a securities law and award Bitfinex Securities a license to conduct the offering, according to a press release from Blockstream.