Honduras’ Central Bank Debunks Bitcoin as Legal Tender Rumors
The BCH is, however, studying the feasibility of a central bank digital currency.
Mar 23, 2022 at 7:38 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/DZDP7SWRQZHS3DXNCEDEJXTCA4.jpeg)
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The Central Bank of Honduras (BCH) has shot down social media chatter about a possible imminent announcement that bitcoin (BTC) was set to become legal tender in that Latin American country.
“Bitcoin for the moment in our country is not regulated,” said the BCH on Wednesday in a Spanish-language official statement. The BCH, the bank continued, is the only issuer of legal tender in Honduras, and that remains solely the lempira.
Today’s announcement comes following rumors on Twitter and elsewhere that Honduras President Xiomara Castro was – in similar fashion to neighboring El Salvador last summer – going to announce a plan to make bitcoin legal tender in her country.
In the BCH statement the bank recalled two communiqués – published in 2020 and 2021, respectively – clarifying the BCH "does not supervise or guarantee operations carried out with cryptocurrencies as means of payment in the national territory."
The BCH reiterated, though, that it continues with “the study and conceptual, technical and legal analysis” to determine the feasibility of issuing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), which would be recognized as legal tender in the country.
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Andrés Engler was a CoinDesk editor based in Argentina, where he covers the Latin American crypto ecosystem. He holds BTC and ETH.