The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, inaugurated on Wednesday a veterinary hospital that, he assures, was financed with the profits obtained after the establishment of bitcoin as legal tender in the country.
“I have not seen many veterinary hospitals like this in the world, and if there were, for sure it would be private, it would be very difficult to find something like this public veterinary hospital”, said the governor, who toured the facilities built with an investment equivalent to four million dollars.
The “ChivoPets”, which has its headquarters in the western sector of San Salvador, will start working on Saturday and will have a symbolic price equivalent to 0.25 cents per care, which users can pay in bitcoins through the Chivo Wallet application, a state electronic wallet.
The hospital to treat pets has, among other areas, emergency clinics, operating rooms, radiology area and laboratories.
“The construction of the place has been possible thanks to the profits obtained with the bitcoin”, assured the Press Secretariat of the Presidency on Twitter.
The inauguration of the hospital comes after on January 25 the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged El Salvador “to limit the scope of the bitcoin law by eliminating its status as legal tender”.
In early February, the IMF stated that a credit agreement with El Salvador will require further discussion on the adoption of bitcoin.
Under Bukele’s government, El Salvador became on September 7, 2021 the first country to make bitcoin legal tender on par with the U.S. dollar, the official currency for two decades.
At that time, one bitcoin was equivalent to about 44,000 dollars. It then traded above $61,000 in October, and in October Bukele announced the construction of the veterinary clinic with the profits generated.
However, the bitcoin fell and is currently trading around $35,000.
