El Salvador to be the first country to adopt bitcoin, AUD awaits RBA decision today

From September 7, El Salvador will become the first country in the world to adopt cryptocurrency as legal tender. The historical decision will allow Salvadorans living abroad to send money back home using bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Currently, over 2.5 million Salvadorans live abroad and mostly in the US. In 2020, they had sent back about $6 billion in total.

AUD ended last week on a high note against USD, gaining about 0.75%. The gain was primarily in response to the shock from US nonfarm payrolls released on Friday as it aroused investors’ risk appetite. RBA will hold a meeting today to decide the tapering schedule. During its last meeting, RBA decided to reduce the scale of bond purchases from AUD 5 billion to AUD 4 billion. However, since the decision, the country’s economy has undergone a lockdown due to the Delta variant. Investors are expecting that before the plan goes into action, RBA will factor this change into consideration.