The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador has just passed a law according to which Bitcoin becomes legal tender in the country alongside the US dollar.
The country's president, Nayib Bukele, has announced he will sign the document in the near future, after which the law will come into force "immediately." The country now has 90 days to develop a cryptocurrency payments infrastructure.
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Bukele announced his plans to legalize Bitcoin last week. The full version of the document was released ahead of today's vote. It stipulates that Bitcoin can be used to set prices and pay taxes. For accounting purposes, the base currency will remain the dollar. Transactions in BTC are not subject to capital gains tax, like any other transaction with means of payment.
The government also intends to create an official crypto wallet and will store $150 million in Bitcoins in a trust fund based at the Development Bank of El Salvador in order to guarantee the automatic and instantaneous exchange between BTC and the dollar.