Bitcoin to become legal tender in El Salvador from September

Bitcoin will be a legal currency in El Salvador from September. The central American country's President Nayib Bukele, in a national address on June 24, said that a recently ratified law making the digital currency legal tender will come into effect from September 7.

Bukele, however, cleared that Bitcoin's used will be optional. El Salvador's Congress had on June 9 approved the president's proposal to accept the cryptocurrency.

This makes El Salvador the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Making the cryptocurrency's use as discretionary, Bukele noted that "nobody will receive Bitcoin if they don't want it." He further stated that "if someone receives a payment in Bitcoin, they can choose to automatically receive it in dollars."