El Salvador made BTC a legal tender in September 2021. Seven months later, Honduras followed suit and adopted Bitcoin for the region. That was in April 2022. And now, its special zone has announced that Bitcoin is officially its unit of account.
Próspera ZEDE, an acronym for Zone for Employment and Economic Development, is accepting Bitcoin for transactions to give its people more financial and monetary freedom. Jorge Colindres, its tax commissioner, made the announcement for the same. Making Bitcoin a unit of account gives the region the liberty to measure its value for goods and services.
Most importantly, people will be able to leverage their Bitcoin holdings to settle transactions for accounting and taxes. They only have to apply within 30 days of their relevant tax period. The filed application must refer to the exchange platform that has the license to operate in Honduras. It could include Kraken or Coinbase, among others.
Launched in May 2020, Próspera ZEDE has managed to generate over 3,000 jobs in the country and secure investments worth $100 million. The numbers are for its 3-year tenure.
The Bitcoin community is pretty excited about the development. They see a rise in the value of the token. It would be backed by a stronger force if the SEC approved ETF applications on January 10, 2024. Members are also excited because they take this development as a sign of mass adoption, with others expecting big players to take note of this development.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $43,942.90. It is on the lower side since the token has slipped by 0.29% in the last 24 hours. However, the value is also an increase of 3.48% in the last 7 days and 1.755 in the last 30 days. The trading value could have been closer to $45k had the crypto market not crashed in the early days of January this year, that is, 2024.
A report that surfaced on the internet hinted at the possibility of the SEC rejecting Bitcoin ETF applications, adding that they lack certain requirements for approval.
The market was quick to withdraw its bullish sentiments, triggering volatility that hit the entire sphere badly. BTC was closer to the $41k mark, and ETH was dancing around $2,200. The latter is still at $2,224.06, hoping to surpass the milestone of $2,300 at the earliest.
BTC is aiming to get past the valuation of $45k so that it can aim for the ATH, followed by the $100k milestone. ATH is achievable, and the community speculates that celebrations are on the way if ETF applications get approval and Bitcoin Halving does its job well in the middle of the year.
Honduras and El Salvador are setting a trend by realizing the value of Bitcoin as a currency to support their economies. It is simultaneously asking them to consider supervision over aspects of AML and the illegitimate outflow of funds from the region.
