El Salvador, the country with Bitcoin as its legal currency since September 2021, has launched its Freedom Visa Program and is already receiving the first dozens of applications. The plan is to grant visas to a maximum of 1000 people per year who deposit $999 in BTC or USDT and pass the KYC process.
El Salvador: how does the new Bitcoin “Freedom Visa” program work?
On December 7th, El Salvador announced the launch of the “Adopting El Salvador Freedom Visa Program” which is nothing more than the possibility of obtaining residency and a passport in the country using Bitcoin as a legal currency.
This is a new program aimed at visionaries who want to contribute to promoting an environment capable of shaping a new socio-economic landscape for El Salvador.
And indeed, the goal of the country is to become a hub for the growth of international tourism, attracting those individuals committed to catalyzing economic expansion and driving transformative social change.
In order to succeed in attracting this kind of “visionary” people, El Salvador has decided to launch this program of “gifted” visas, but only for those who meet the required requirements.
The process, in fact, requires a non-refundable deposit of $999 in Bitcoin (BTC) or Tether (USDT), as well as passing the KYC procedure. Once the KYC is accepted, the deposit will be credited as a $1 million investment, necessary to obtain the Bitcoin Freedom Visa, and therefore Salvadoran citizenship.
This program also sees the participation of Tether, the crypto company behind the strongest stablecoin in the market, as a technological partner.
El Salvador: 1000 people per year will be able to obtain the “Bitcoin Freedom Visa”
The program dedicated to the Bitcoin Freedom Visa is essentially an invitation to citizenship that El Salvador offers to a maximum of 1000 people per year.
The procedure for applying for a visa is very quick, in fact it only takes a few minutes to fill out the initial form. On the other hand, the approval process can take up to 6 weeks.
Not only that, the Freedom Visa program in El Salvador is designed as a citizenship by donation initiative. Eligible candidates, therefore, will receive their passport within three months.
According to what is reported, it seems that the National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador (ONBTC) has declared that the program has already received hundreds of requests since its launch and expects it to be sold out before the end of 2023.
3.6 million dollars in BTC profit
At the beginning of December, El Salvador made headlines for the rise in the price of Bitcoin. In fact, President Nayib Bukele reportedly stated that their investment in BTC would have generated an unrealized profit of over $3.6 million.
By analyzing the various investments made by the country with Bitcoin as legal currency, it seems that the first one was made in September 2021 when the price of BTC was above $50,000.
In the following, El Salvador would have made nine more purchases, five of which were above $40,000 and four were below.
Only starting from November 2022, the country changed its BTC accumulation strategy, initiating a daily purchasing plan, with an average daily purchase price above $40,000.
The rise in the price of BTC above this threshold has therefore brought El Salvador’s total investment into profit, quantified at $3.62 million.