El Salvador’s Bitcoin bonds not going as planned for crypto-mad millennial president

El Salvador’s Bitcoin bonds not going as planned for crypto-mad millennial president

Just last November, El Salvador’s crypto-mad president Nayib Bukele was rocking out at a Bitcoin conference to AC/DC’s megahit “You Shook Me All Night Long,” as he announced a new “volcano bond”—the world’s first cryptocurrency sovereign-debt product, and one more step in his plan to create an entire crypto-heavy nation.

Now the tempo seems less upbeat.

Bukele is at loggerheads with international lenders and ratings agencies, who have warned for months that his crypto strategy could pose economic risks and raise the country's borrowing costs. He also faces deep skepticism among financial institutions.