El Salvador hosted two events last week, which gave industry experts and cryptocurrency advocates the opportunity to celebrate their commitment to the digital token.
Wearing hats with the bitcoin symbol and T-shirts with the "buy the fucking dip" mantra, adherents who flocked to the country said they were not worried about recent price fluctuations and were investing in long-term plans.
The highlight of the week was the annual Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference, which is a three-day event that ended on Friday.
On Wednesday night, hundreds of bitcoin supporters plunged into Latin American rap in front of a live music scene, knocking over cans of beers and denouncing the US dollar. They also warned that hyperinflation may be observed soon.
Meanwhile, companies ranging from bitcoin ATM providers to crypto exchanges decided to open stands around the Teatro Presidente in El Slavador's capital city. Some of the attendees also planned trips to El Zonte, a beach town an hour away where Bitcoin first took off in the country.
But Bitcoin has been declining amid all the holidays, dropping in price every day except last Friday. It ended roughly 16% below its all-time high of nearly $ 69,000 earlier this month.
The revelers were not scared of this, and the conference speakers predicted that in the coming years, Bitcoin could reach $ 400,000 or even $ 1 million.
Jose Luis Guillen, CEO of Coincaex, said the recent drop should not bother people who plan to keep their tokens. "I don't worry about the price in the long term,"he said. "Bitcoin is in a 13-year-long bull-market," he added.
Gillen also noted that there was an increase in clients over the past year, thanks to rising inflation in the US. He also said their clients are getting older, now in the 45-65 age group compared to those in the 20-30 years that he saw initially.
Meanwhile, Jerry Schick said prices for goods and services in the United States have skyrocketed this year, so maintaining the recreational-vehicle park she owns became more expensive. She recounted that she started buying bitcoins in February and tried to buy cryptocurrencies between $ 20 and $ 100 a day to offset inflation. Her portfolio has grown 40% since then. "I think Bitcoin is the escape hatch for what is fixing to happen - the collapse of the US dollar, biological weapons, and extinction events," Schick said.
As for Colombian singer Yessenia Correa, blockchain technology is what brought her to Bitcoin. She has been speculating on price fluctuations since 2015, and the profit helped her pay for her studies at a music school. She said the price of bitcoin is high right now so she is looking at other cryptocurrencies under $ 1 to try to make money faster. She said "there are many options." Of course, many of these alternative coins have had their wild leaps, with huge ups and downs followed by spectacular drops.
Colombian programmer Jesse Rodriguez said he is still buying bitcoins, which he started experimenting with in 2014. Although Colombia does not suffer from the hyperinflation of regional counterparts like Venezuela or Argentina, the national peso is worth half of what it was seven years ago. This is why when Rodriguez does work for foreign clients now, he requests payment through Paypal and immediately converts his foreign wages into Bitcoin. "I don't even keep dollars anymore," he said. "In the early days, Bitcoin was demonized and no one viewed it as a means of payment, but here in El Salvador you can use it to pay at Starbucks, or to buy pupusas. It's a dream come true, and I hope the same happens in Colombia."
Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador on September 7, and the government launched its Chivo digital wallet, which was preloaded with Bitcoin. Citizens quickly began speculating, buying dips and selling draws with a wallet that quickly converts to US dollars. El Salvador's economy minister Maria Luisa Hayem said the move put the country "on the vanguard of technology."
Samson Mow, CSO of Blockstream, said: "A financial system built on Bitcoin is inevitable. You don't need the World Bank, you don't need the IMF. Bitcoin will save the day. This is the one chance we have to fix money."
Meanwhile, Pablo Gonzalez, co-founder of Bitso, commented: "Money is changing in the world."