El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bonds May Be Delayed Until September, Says Finance Chief
El Salvador could push its bitcoin (BTC) bond issuance back as far as September, the nation’s Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya has admitted – but a more imminent issuance is still on the table.
The government is hopeful of raising USD 1.5bn in a bond issuance to pay for the construction of a tax-free haven for international bitcoiners. The bonds were originally due to debut sometime last week, but the government appears to have backed off from this, claiming that the war in Ukraine had been an “unexpected” factor.
Zelaya, ElSalvador.com reported, told a television interviewer:
“This is not a good time to issue bitcoin bonds. We are ready to carry it [the issuance]. We are waiting for the right moment and for the President [Nayib Bukele] to tell us ‘yes, we are going to do it now.’ I think that the moment is not yet, we have to wait for a couple more days.”
But when pressed to explain what he meant by the latter, Zelaya responded:
“For me, the ideal time to launch onto the market is the first [financial quarter]. In my case, I like issuance that are made between March and April. No later than September. In May or June the market variants are a little different. The latest would be September. After September, if you go to the international market, it is difficult [to raise capital].”
But the finance chief insisted that there was still no shortage of interest in the bonds, claiming:
“There are already interested buyers out there, we are sure that we are going to oversubscribe. I hope that this issue reaches USD 1.5 billion. We are going to reach a billion [USD], but I think we are going to have a fairly substantial oversubscription that we could channel to other financing needs that the country also has.”
Zelaya also confirmed
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