Despite recent volatility, XRP’s long-term bullish potential is unaffected, meaning investors can still aim for $5. After a robust rally in July that took it from the $2.40 range to almost $3.60, the asset is currently consolidating at $3.20. The fact that XRP is still above critical moving averages even though the momentum has slowed indicates that the uptrend is still intact.

Technically speaking, XRP is currently capped on upward movements in the $3.35-$3.40 range by a descending trendline resistance from its late-July highs. Bulls are prepared to push toward the $3.60 mark once more, which is the final significant obstacle before aiming for $4.00 and ultimately $5.00. A breakout above this level would be a clear indication of that.

Although it won’t happen right away, the $5 path is by no means unattainable. The recent price movement of XRP has demonstrated that the asset can produce quick gains once momentum starts to build.

Good sentiment in the cryptocurrency market, expanding acceptance in payment systems and solid fundamentals could all act as catalysts for such a move. Important support levels are located at the 50-day EMA ($2.79) and the 20-day EMA ($3.05). Long-term investors may view any pullbacks into these zones as opportunities for accumulation as long as these levels are maintained, which would keep XRP in a bullish structure.

The $5 dream is still alive even though short-term price fluctuations and trendline resistance might cause hesitancy. To make it happen, XRP needs to firmly regain the $3.60 zone, which will pave the way for a surge toward the psychological $4.00 barrier, after which $5 becomes a feasible benchmark.

Shiba Inu develops

Shiba Inu’s early indications of a head and shoulders pattern are developing on the daily chart. Having failed to break above the descending trendline resistance that has been in place since late July, SHIB is currently under downward pressure, trading close to $0.00001338 at this time.

A steep rally to the mid-July peak or head at around $0.00001550 seems to have followed the formation of the left shoulder in early July. The price is currently having difficulty keeping up with the combined resistance of the 200-day EMA (~$0.00001428) and the descending trendline despite the recent recovery attempt from the $0.00001200 zone having created the beginnings of the right shoulder.

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If this pattern materializes, the neckline falls between $0.00001200 and $0.00001220. With a more significant support near $0.00001000 and the first major support around $0.00001150, a clear daily close below this level might lead to a deeper sell-off. That being said, the bearish scenario is not assured. By pushing SHIB firmly above the 200-day EMA and the $0.00001450 resistance level, bulls still have a chance to invalidate the pattern.

The market may pick up steam and move toward $0.00001550, possibly retesting the psychological barrier at $0.00002000. While trading volume is still quite low in comparison to July’s highs, the RSI is currently close to 53, indicating neutral market momentum.

This shows that traders are probably waiting for a breakout or breakdown from this consolidation and are in a wait-and-see attitude. At the moment, Shiba Inu is at a complex crossroads.

Bitcoin’s attempt

As Bitcoin tries to recover from the $120,000 resistance, which has turned into a crucial barrier for bullish momentum, it is in an uncertain period. In recent weeks, Bitcoin has made multiple attempts to break through the $118,130 mark, but each push has been thwarted by selling pressure, maintaining the market in what could be described as deep waters.

From a technical standpoint, the $120,000 level represents both a psychological cutoff and a point at which the market has experienced significant rejections in the past. The uptrend that started in early May when Bitcoin surged from about $95,000 to its July highs may be coming to an end if it is not broken. Continuing its upward trend, the 20-day EMA ($115,964) provides some immediate support. The 50-day EMA ($113,934), which corresponds to a consolidation zone from earlier in the summer, comes next.

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A decline below these levels might drive Bitcoin closer to the 100-day EMA or $108,377 and possibly further into a corrective phase. Recent resistance retests have seen comparatively low volume, indicating that buyers are wary at these high prices. With neither extremely bullish nor bearish conditions predominating the RSI, which is currently at 57, it indicates neutral momentum.

Bitcoin is at greater risk of a protracted period of sideways movement or even a deeper retracement if it is unable to break and hold above $120,000 in the near future. This could postpone a complete recovery toward all-time highs and beyond in addition to dampening sentiment in the short term.

The following article is a guest post and opinion of Chris “Jinx” Jenkins, Head of Operations at Pocket Network.

Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee once dreamed of an open and accessible digital information system. His vision for the web — a virtual space where everyone had equitable opportunities to contribute, collaborate, share, and learn together — has shifted.

But the internet has moved in the opposite direction from this open garden. From single points of failure to censorship by sectors both public and private, it is now in the middle of a fight between messaging-obsessed political bodies and profit-hungry corporations, each seeking to control or monetize information flows.

Web3, powered by decentralized apps (DApps), promises to rekindle Berners-Lee’s dream of a permissionless space for free, open communication and innovation. Yet ironically, DApps today also rely heavily on centralized infrastructure or data sources. These single points of failure compromise the entire ecosystem’s security and integrity — as seen in many of the complaints around Solana.

Systems are only as secure as their weakest points. And to fulfill Web3’s ethos, DApps must adopt and implement genuinely open, decentralized, and verifiable infrastructure.

DApps Suffer from Concentrated Vulnerabilities

Most developers build the front end of DApps on a decentralized interface, but depend on centralized data infrastructure for backend support.

DApps largely run on centralized data hosting platforms and cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Although easily accessible, these platforms are susceptible to single-point failures and censorship, leading to global outages and downtime.

History is a witness to these failures. There are multiple examples where Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms have faced disruptions, interrupting seamless DApp usage.

For instance, although MetaMask functions as a decentralized wallet, its endpoints run on centralized tech like Infura to access Ethereum. In 2022, when Infura blocked access after U.S. sanctions, MetaMask users temporarily couldn’t access their wallets from specific regions.

This is not an isolated incident. Infura clients have also faced interruptions in the past. Similarly, Solana and Polygon users faced outages due to the overloading of centralized RPCs during high network traffic.

DApps using centralized infrastructure to supply data are thus susceptible to downtime, information inaccuracies, usage gaps, and disconnected data flows. These incidents demonstrate the need to shift to decentralized infrastructure for data transferability and smooth accessibility without facing outages.

The Need for a Decentralized DApp Ecosystem

DApps without a decentralized stack are an oxymoron.

Instead of AWS, Google, or Azure, DApps must use open-source solutions like InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), Filecoin, or Arweave. These protocols provide a tamper-proof, distributed storage facility with high uptime and protection against random outages.

DApps running on decentralized infrastructure work with independent node operators. This helps distribute data queries across the network, eliminating single points of failure for unstoppable data availability.

Since individual nodes cannot block information flows, DApps run smoothly even when several nodes are offline. So the network always remains accessible without any downtime.

Decentralized infrastructure further removes the dependency on intermediaries who arbitrarily control data flows. Instead, DApps can connect with data, service providers, and users within an integrated, enmeshed open-source system.

Pocket Network unlocks open data accessibility so that any DApp can get the information it needs, without relying on centralized or singular entities. Pocket’s Shannon upgrade created the first truly permissionless Open API Network.

Decentralized social networks like BlueSky and the AT Protocol don’t depend on centralized RPCs. Rather, they work with decentralized RPCs to access open data. Similarly, DeFi protocols using Chainlink don’t need to depend on centralized APIs to source real-time on-chain price data.

A robust, genuinely decentralized tech stack is critical for DApps to build a digital ecosystem without single points of failure, paving the way to return to Berners-Lee’s vision of a globally accessible network.

Towards Berners-Lee’s Vision of an Open Internet

Tim didn’t envision a society where a few megacorporations build walled gardens with asymmetrical relationships between users and companies. He wanted open communication in the digital world without any powerful intermediaries controlling information exchange.

This vision is aligned with Satoshi Nakamoto’s idea of a decentralized, peer-to-peer exchange system. And although crypto now leans toward a casino-style gambling circus, that was not how Nakamoto and the cypherpunk community imagined it to be.

That said, Web3 innovators are actively building the infrastructure necessary to bring Tim and Satoshi’s vision to fruition. Because an open digital world with equitable accessibility is a must-have, not a nice-to-have.

Decentralized infrastructure protocols for open-source data are rapidly emerging as the new frontier for seamless data accessibility to train AI models and support cross-chain DApp usage. With a $350 billion open data market, it’s critical to wrest control away from centralized providers and distribute it among decentralized operators.

To thrive, crypto, AI, and other emerging tech must reject Web2’s business model and embrace the internet’s OG vision, now enshrined in the Web3 paradigm. Moving toward a decentralized infrastructure that doesn’t suffer from single points of failure is crucial to building a resilient and reliable internet.

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Julia Smith

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Julia Smith

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Julia is an experienced editor with a passion for covering a wide variety of beats. She loves all things politics and regularly covers regulatory updates on emerging technology here for Crypto News.

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June 27, 2025

Owning Bitcoin will replace home ownership as the American dream, former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao told his followers on social media this week.

Bitcoin Ownership Is The New American Dream, CZ Says

A June 26 X post from Zhao shows the crypto entrepreneur celebrating U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte’s decision to order both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider ways cryptocurrencies may be used in mortgage risk assessments.

“This is great to see, BTC count as assets for mortgage,” Zhao wrote in response to Pulte’s post.

“The current American Dream is to own a home,” Zhao continued. “The future American Dream will be to own 0.1 BTC, which will be more than the value of a house in the US.”

Issued on Wednesday, Pulte’s order will see the two government-sponsored enterprises prepare a proposal considering “cryptocurrency as an asset for reserves in their respective single-family mortgage loan risk assessments” without first being converted to U.S. dollars.

If approved, prospective homeowners would be able to use cryptocurrencies stored on any U.S.-regulated centralized exchange as part of their mortgage risk assessment without being converted to USD first.

“Today is a historic day in the cryptocurrency industry and the mortgage industry, whereby Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now positioned to involve Cryptocurrencies in Mortgages,” Pulte said in a June 25 statement. “Thank you President Trump for making the USA the crypto capital of the world!”

Trump Talks Bitcoin

News of Zhao’s commentary comes as Bitcoin held steady around $107,000 on Friday.

During a White House press conference on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump praised the cryptocurrency, claiming that it “takes a lot of pressure off of the dollar” and is “a great thing for our country.”

“It’s become amazing,” Trump told reporters.

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

Jack Dorsey’s financial services company Block is set to let shops take bitcoin right at the cash register. It’s a new twist on how you pay, and it might change small businesses’ options.

Bitcoin Payments On Square Hardware

According to Block, starting in the second half of 2025, merchants using Square Point of Sale can accept bitcoin. The push rests on the Lightning Network, which handles payments in under a second and keeps fees low.

At Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas from May 27–29, shoppers can try it out at the BTC Inc. merchandise store.

A Two-Phase Rollout

Based on reports, the first phase rolls out later this year. Then, subject to approvals, every eligible seller could be live by 2026. That means millions of Square users may add bitcoin to their checkouts alongside credit cards and cash. It’s a big step for a tool many small shops already use.

Today: we’re accepting bitcoin payments at @TheBitcoinConf
Soon: you can accept bitcoin payments wherever you are

Details here: https://t.co/ko2S9hFpih pic.twitter.com/IYlYV6XM2S

— Square (@Square) May 27, 2025

From Conversions To Checkout

Block first let merchants convert part of their daily takings into bitcoin in 2024. Now they’ll take crypto up front. When a customer pays, Square’s app handles the exchange rate and confirmation. Stores see payouts faster. And customers who hold bitcoin get to use it without extra steps.

Filling Out A Bitcoin Toolbox

Block isn’t stopping at payments. Its Cash App has had bitcoin buy, sell, and send features for years. Then there’s Bitkey, launched in March 2024, a self-custody wallet without tricky seed phrases.

Soon it will add stronger privacy and smarter recovery tools, including ways to pass funds on to heirs. There’s also Proto mining gear and Spiral, which backs bitcoin projects. Together, they cover buying, storing, spending, and even building with bitcoin.

Image: iStock

Merchants will still face price swings if they choose to hold bitcoin. But automatic conversions remain an option. And for those who do hold, using the Lightning Network can cut costs versus 2%–3% credit-card fees.

Meanwhile, regulators will watch closely. Approvals may vary by region. But if all goes as planned, shoppers will see a new “bitcoin” button on Square screens in early 2026.

It’s early days, but this looks like a real test of bitcoin’s original peer-to-peer idea. Some will welcome lower fees and fast settlement. Others will wait and see if it sticks. Either way, small shops soon have a fresh way to get paid.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

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Bottom line: More than four years after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta to chase his metaverse vision, the company has poured tens of billions into the effort – with little to show for it. The ongoing losses have raised serious doubts about the strategy and its long-term viability.

Insiders say the metaverse project has become a financial sinkhole, consuming $45 billion by early 2025. That’s nearly equal to the combined market caps of social media rivals Snap and Pinterest – or the amount Elon Musk paid to acquire Twitter. Worse, Zuckerberg warned in last year’s earnings report that losses would continue to “increase meaningfully,” whatever that means.

Yahoo Finance spoke to over a dozen former high-level Reality Labs employees, who described the wing as dysfunctional and disorganized. Frequent leadership changes and constant reshuffling reportedly sowed chaos, with many managers brought in from other Meta divisions despite lacking AR and VR expertise.

One former research employee described the work environment as “chaotic,” with “local heroes” from divisions like Instagram promoted to lead virtual reality teams despite lacking relevant experience. Another ex-staffer said Meta recklessly “plays employee bingo,” assigning AR and VR roles to people who “don’t really understand it.” This combination of unqualified leadership and an unclear product strategy has significantly contributed to the division’s staggering losses.

Financial disclosures show the branch’s losses have surged over the last several years – more than $6 billion in 2020, $10 billion in 2021, $13 billion in 2022, and $16 billion in 2023. The division lost another $3.8 billion in just the first quarter of 2024, wiping out its total revenue from 2022 and 2023 combined.

Despite rising expenditures, the division’s annual revenue has declined steadily since 2021 due to weak sales and continued failure to gain mainstream traction. Wall Street analyst Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management told Yahoo Finance that the division is a “financial disaster” dragging down Meta’s stock.

While some investors have remained patient, betting on the long-term promise of AR and VR, that optimism is starting to fade. Barring rapid mainstream adoption, losing $10-15 billion annually on Zucckerberg’s metaverse pipe dream is unsustainable.

We recently caught up with John Vibes, Somnia’s Chief Vibe Officer and the creative force behind their content.  With over a decade of experience in the crypto space, John has seen the industry evolve dramatically.

In our interview, John shared how Somnia’s newly launched DevNet and their “Dream Computer” aim to allow developers to build anything they can dream of. He highlighted the advantages for developers building on Somnia, especially its capability of handling 400,000 transactions per second. John also explained how this performance unlocks new possibilities like reactive applications. If you’re wondering what Somnia’s cooking up for the future of blockchain, you’ll definitely want to read this interview.

You’ve been in the crypto space for over a decade. How have you seen the industry evolve, especially as it becomes more mainstream?

John Vibes: When I got into the industry, the space was not really about making money the way it is now. It was very ideological, with tons of anarchists and hackers who had dreams of changing the world with magic internet money. Wall Street didn’t take us seriously, but now that they do, and in many ways, they have consumed the industry. This cultural shift has been hard to handle because I feel very out of place these days, but I guess at least Wall Street will pump our bags.

John Vibes – ‘Chief Vibe Officer’ at Somina

Somnia is known as the “Dream Computer.” What exactly does this mean, and how does it set Somnia apart from other Layer 1 Blockchains?

John Vibes: When Vitalik Buterin was originally pitching his idea for Ethereum, he called it the “World Computer,” so the “Dream Computer” is riffing off that early blockchain terminology. We call Somnia the “Dream Computer” because it has the performance capabilities to allow developers to build anything they can dream of.

What role has Improbable played in shaping Somnia’s blockchain infrastructure, especially considering their experience with platforms like Yuga Labs’ Otherside?

John Vibes: Improbable has played a crucial role in the development of the Somnia Blockchain, and they will continue to be a major partner on our journey.

With Improbable announcing the DevNet launch for Somnia, what should developers look forward to, and why should they choose to build on the platform?

John Vibes: Unlike many Devnets that are closed to the public, Somnia is open for public testing during specific hours, which allows the development team to gather valuable community feedback and fully stress-test our network’s capabilities under real-world conditions.

Public users will be able to test out our first applications with Somnia Test Tokens that can be collected for free from a faucet on the Devnet. These applications will include the first exchanges, NFTs and games. Users will also be able to track the network’s transactions through the block explorer.

To help early-stage developers succeed, Somnia is launching a $10 million grant program and providing access to technical guidance, funding, and go-to-market strategies, helping developers bring their ideas to life on Somnia, whether they’re building games, DeFi protocols, or immersive metaverse experiences. By joining Somnia’s ecosystem, developers can take advantage of our high-performance infrastructure, ensuring that their applications can scale effectively and reach global audiences.

You’ve spoken previously about creating a fair and equitable decentralized economy. What are some of the ways Somnia is working to make that vision a reality?

John Vibes: Somnia is building a future where the value flows between the participants of platforms instead of flowing straight up to the owners of the platforms. We want to make it possible for people to build decentralized applications where the users, founders and workers have a shared stake and ability to benefit from the large platforms they participate in.

I see a lot about Somnia’s 400k TPS capabilities. How does Somnia achieve these speeds?

John Vibes: There are a few major innovations that make this possible. First, there’s our new consensus mechanism, MultiStream Consensus, where each validator runs its own data chain to increase throughput. We also have advanced compression algorithms, and we’ve also built our own custom database, called ICEdb.

What are some advantages for developers building on Somnia?

John Vibes: We’re EVM compatible, so Ethereum developers can work with familiar tooling and easily port over Ethereum applications. We’re also offering a $10 million grant program, along with go-to-market and developer support.

What are some new use cases and features that Somnia’s performance capabilities unlock?

John Vibes: 400k TPS makes a lot of new things possible, but one of the most interesting things that we have been talking about is the possibility of reactive applications. This means applications that respond to live events. So, if something happens in the real world, this can trigger an activity in an application. For Example, you can walk into a store and get an NFT for being a frequent visitor. This can also work great for games, where the gaming experience can change based on things that happen in the real world.

Finally, what’s next for Somnia as it continues to grow? Are there any major developments we should be looking out for?

John Vibes: We are in the process of rolling out our Devnet now, which will allow the public to test out our blockchain for the first time. We will be allowing whitelisted developers to start building their apps, and we also have a $10 million grant program to help kick-start the ecosystem. After that, we will enter the testnet phase, where the blockchain will be entirely open to public development, and open around the clock for testing. After that, it will be time for mainnet!

A big thank you to John Vibes for sharing his thoughts and enthusiasm with us. We’re excited to see how his vision for Somnia continues to innovate in the blockchain space.

This article is part of a four-piece series on El Salvador. You can find the previous dispatch, a story on El Zonte, here.

There was formidable energy at this year’s Plan B conference in El Salvador.

The event, which took place on Jan. 30-31, was historic for many of its 2,500 attendants. It was the first Bitcoin forum in the Central American nation to have a full dual-language agenda — meaning sessions in both English and Spanish.

For Roman Martínez, a Salvadoran co-founder of Bitcoin Beach, Plan B was a dream come true, because it enabled ordinary Salvadorans to make sense of their country’s Bitcoin experiment and ponder their own place within it. “Up until now, every Bitcoin conference was geared towards foreigners,” he told me on the first day, in Spanish. “Not everybody knows English. It’s already hard to learn a complex topic in your own language. In another, it’s three times harder.”

Martínez was involved in organizing the event. The expectation, he said, was for maybe 100 to 150 Salvadorans would show up — but more than 1,500 tickets were sold to Spanish speakers. “I’ve never seen so many Salvadoran faces at a Bitcoin conference,” he said. “We’re arriving at a point where Salvadorans are realizing that Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere, and either we learn to become part of it right now, or we’re going to be left behind.”

I could feel it too.

The English-speaking area, located at the Sheraton Presidente San Salvador Hotel, had crypto celebrities on stage including Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, and OGs like Samson Mow, Jimmy Song, Blockstream CEO Adam Back and early Bitcoin developer Peter Todd. “We are witnessing a battle between centralized and decentralized systems!” Walker America, host of THE Bitcoin Podcast, shouted at the conference’s opening panel.

Yet that side of the conference felt somewhat formulaic compared to the Spanish-speaking zone, held at the Museum of Arts of El Salvador, which was absolutely electric. Over there, Salvadorans of all stripes outlined plans to help their country develop — from providing new educational opportunities, to mixing Bitcoin with dental care, to discussing the government’s strategy with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Many of the panel speakers, young Salvadorans themselves, had fire in their eyes.

“We are in the right place in the world at the right time in history,” Gerardo Linares, co-founder of Bitcoin Berlín (the initiative behind the nation’s second Bitcoin circular economy) said to a completely bewitched audience. “It’s all happening right here, in El Salvador.”

A conference for Salvadorans

I was struck by the Spanish area’s demographic makeup. Crypto conferences are famously male-dominated; participants often complain of having to navigate a sea of dudes. The English-speaking zone was like that — maybe 90% male and 10% female.

The Spanish side was much more balanced, with a ratio of approximately 60% men and 40% women. While the majority of attendants sported black and orange Bitcoin T-shirts, you also saw middle-aged Salvadoran couples wearing elegant Salvadoran outfits, and twenty-something university students with turtlenecks and notepads.

I asked Evelyn Lemus and Patricia Rosales, two of the Salvadorans who spearheaded the Bitcoin initiative in Berlín, what they thought of the female attendance rate. They didn’t seem surprised. “There is a new generation of Salvadoran women who do not depend on men,” Rosales, a single mother herself, told me.“

In El Salvador, most of the time, it’s women who manage family finances,” Lemus said. “That’s why they come to events like this: To see how they can manage and invest the family money. It’s one of the reasons we really wanted to have the conference in Spanish.”

Bitcoin shouldn’t be reserved to the nation’s elite, but should make everyday life easier for ordinary Salvadorans, Lemus said. That concern influenced her action plan for Bitcoin Berlín. “We wanted to push back on this notion that Salvadorans don’t use Bitcoin — that only expats use it. Now, if you go to Berlín, you’ll see working class people using Bitcoin.”

Making sense of El Salvador’s situation

There was an overall feeling that El Salvador is on the cusp of entering a new phase in its Bitcoin experiment.

The last four years have seen the Central American nation, once known as the homicide capital of the world, rebrand itself into Bitcoin Country. President Nayib Bukele, by locking up MS-13 and Barrio 18 and putting an end to gang warfare, had given El Salvador a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reorganize itself and attain prosperity — at least that’s how most of the people at the conference seemed to see it.

A lot of conversations revolved around the pick-up in Bitcoin adoption. For years, despite bitcoin becoming legal tender in 2021, you could only pay for stuff with the cryptocurrency in El Zonte, the small surfing village also known as Bitcoin Beach. In 2023, 88% of Salvadorans did not use the digital coin, according to a survey by the Central American University.

But now a second Bitcoin circular economy has been implemented in the town of Berlín, up in the mountains, and other initiatives are reportedly growing elsewhere, like in Santa Ana, the second largest city in the country.

Martínez, Lemus and Linares were all eager to share tips and advice. The secret sauce to adoption, they said, is to mix Bitcoin initiatives with social work. “If the way to get people to use Bitcoin was to make hamburgers instead of doing social work, then I would be making hamburgers,” Linares told me. “Whatever works. People like social stuff, so that’s what we’re doing.”

Stablecoin giant Tether’s decision to relocate its headquarters to El Salvador was also perceived as a massive win. Tether reported $143.7 billion in assets, including $94.5 billion in Treasury bills, in the last financial quarter of 2024. For comparison, El Salvador’s GDP was estimated at $34 billion in 2023 by the World Bank.

Tether has become the largest company (by far) to be based in El Salvador — and other crypto firms are bound to follow in its footsteps, taking advantage of the nation’s advanced crypto regulatory framework and increasingly skilled workforce. For Salvadorans, that means more career opportunities, higher salaries and the possibility that the country may become a tech hub in its own right.

“El Salvador should not only be known for being the first to implement bitcoin as legal tender,” Darvin Otero, CEO of tiianki Technology, said on stage. “Let’s change the lives of the young folks here and create the next leaders of this tech movement.”

“We have a small territory, but we can have a big dream,” Alejandro Muñoz, a Salvadoran lawyer, said. “We can provide a big service. … Good lawyers will attract good investors and filter the scammers out. Bitcoin education needs to happen in the legal industry; steps are being taken already in that direction.”

Bright future ahead

The conference occurred only days after the government, as part of a recent multi-billion dollar deal with the IMF, rescinded bitcoin’s status as legal tender — meaning that businesses aren’t obliged to accept bitcoin payments anymore. While some members of the Bitcoin community have accused Bukele of caving to the IMF, none of the Salvadorans at Plan B seemed to see it that way. In their view, nothing has changed on a practical level, since the vast majority of businesses didn’t use Bitcoin to begin with.

In fact, a number of people welcomed the deal. “El Salvador locked in long-term funding to finish the reforms needed,” Mike Peterson, an American expatriate who lives in El Zonte and co-founded of Bitcoin Beach, posted on X recently. “The IMF loan puts the country on track to get the BBB credit rating that most sovereign wealth funds require to invest in a country.”

That’s the big difference between Salvadorans and Bitcoiners. Hardcore Bitcoiners prioritize global adoption; they want the cryptocurrency to eventually supplant government-issued currencies, like the U.S. dollar. For them, El Salvador is a stepping stone, the first nation to initiate hyperbitcoinization, but certainly not the last.

Salvadorans don’t have the same priorities. For them, Bitcoin is simply a tool, a means to an end. Their goal is to develop Salvadoran society.

“Salvadorans have always been proud of being Salvadoran. But there was a lot of pessimism. We were never the first in anything positive, only in negative things,” Linares told me. “Now people come from all parts of the world to listen to what we have to say. Bitcoin has a lot to do with that.”

“There are a lot of projects here in El Salvador that invest so much time and resources and get almost nothing in return — except tremendous pride in being able to give back to the community and support everyone else. This feeling needs to expand throughout the country. We’re in a moment of great change. You can feel it in the air.”