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Bitcoin in Mexico: Senator will Propose Legislation to Adopt Legal Tender for Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin, El American

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In view of the progress El Salvador has made in terms of cryptocurrencies since it adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, a Mexican government official will propose a bill to follow the example of its Central American neighbor.

In an interview for El Salvador In English, Indira Kempis, senator for the state of Nuevo León, said she is working on a cryptocurrency bill that she plans to present to Congress this year.

Kempis said in the interview that, after surrounding herself with entrepreneurs, businessmen and technology experts who insist on cryptocurrencies, and seeing how El Salvador has become a “laboratory” for Bitcoin in the world, she has decided to promote it in her country. 

“It is clear to me that financial exclusion is one of the public problems that few of us have addressed with feasible alternatives,” the senator said. “This type of technology is allowing us to generate an alternative for millions of people to be included in the financial system.”

Bitcoin in Mexico: necessary but difficult

Kempis considers it “necessary” for Bitcoin to become a legal tender in Mexico and that, otherwise, her country will miss an opportunity like the one El Salvador has to “take measures” against inequality and in favor of financial inclusion. 

“Making Bitcoin a legal tender means establishing equal conditions for people who are excluded in almost every country,” the senator said.

In that sense, Kempis believes that Nayib Bukele’s work regarding cryptocurrencies has become a “revolution” that will serve as an example for “all countries.”

“What I have been doing is opening the discussion so that people, authorities and the Mexican political class can begin to see this as the legal basis for the future to come, because you (Salvadorans) are demonstrating that this can be possible.”

Despite the senator’s enthusiasm, however, the decision to legalize Bitcoin in Mexico could encounter some resistance.

In June last year, representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, the Bank of Mexico and the National Banking and Securities Commission issued a joint statement warning investors that there is no financial institution in the country “authorized to carry out and offer the public operations with virtual assets.”

In October, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) ruled out following El Salvador’s example. In one of his regular conferences, AMLO said that Mexico must “maintain the orthodoxy” of its financial operations and upheld an apathetic stance on cryptocurrencies.

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