For more than two years in Berlin, a small district in the eastern part of El Salvador, Bitcoin enthusiasts have created a learning center and provided technical support to owners of about 200 businesses and entrepreneurs on using the cryptocurrency, which currently has a value of around $115,000.

Berlin

In Berlin, a small town in El Salvador, locals continue to trade and use Bitcoin, even as the national government has made its acceptance voluntary for private parties and limited public sector involvement. The town has established a cryptocurrency learning center, supporting over 200 businesses and educating more than 500 students on digital currency as an alternative financial system. 

Despite the government's ongoing accumulation of Bitcoin reserves, concerns remain about the lack of broader educational efforts and the limited impact on the general population. A recent survey indicated that most Salvadorans do not see cryptocurrency as beneficial to their family's wealth, suggesting that Berlin's enthusiastic adoption of Bitcoin is not widely shared across the country.

Salvadoran town keeps faith in Bitcoin despite market volatility

Atop one of El Salvador's coffee-growing mountain ranges, beans and Bitcoin are being traded. Crypto enthusiasts in Berlin, in the eastern part of the Central American country, are enjoying the profits of the currency's surge to record levels, currently around $115,000. Local market vendor Marta Navarro is one of the lucky ones. I left the money there and let it work. I left it there, and then I would suddenly look at it. Sometimes it would go up, sometimes it would go down. Suddenly, I saw I'd earned quite a bit. So it's very nice, because when you have enough money, you see the profit when it goes up. In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender alongside the US dollar. However, in January, President Nayib Bukele's government modified the law as part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to obtain $1.4 billion in financing. That made Bitcoin acceptance voluntary for private parties, and limited public sector participation in cryptocurrency. Berlin is one place embracing the whole idea, however. More than two years ago, the small community of around 20,000 people created a cryptocurrency learning center to provide technical support to owners of about 200 businesses and entrepreneurs. They say they have educated over 500 students about Bitcoin as an alternative to the financial system, and claim foreign tourists and locals now regularly transect in digital currency. Gail Weisenberg, a French hostel owner in Berlin, says she has experienced a shift in attitude. I think whoever lives in Berlin now lives in US dollars and in Bitcoin standard, but I think more people are on the Bitcoin standard. But Quentin Ehrenmann, a French citizen working with a non-governmental organization, MyFirstBitcoin, is worried about the change in the law. Since the government entered into this contract with the IMF, Bitcoin is no longer legal tender and we haven't seen any other effort to educate people. The government apparently continues to accumulate Bitcoin, which is beneficial for the government. It's not directly good for the people. The government says it has continued increasing its reserves to reach a total of 6,246 Bitcoins, worth over $700 million. And the IMF said Thursday that El Salvador's crypto holdings remain consistent with commitments the country made earlier this year. But Berlin's eager adoption of Bitcoin could remain an outlier. A 2024 survey by the Jesuit Central American University showed that 80% of Salvadorans believed cryptocurrency provided little to no help to their family's wealth.

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