Bitcoin-drop: El Salvador falters in legal tender rollout

Bitcoin plunged as much as 17 per cent to its lowest level in a month as El Salvador’s crypto rollout got off to a rocky start

The largest cryptocurrency fell as low as $43,050 in New York on Tuesday, plunging more than 10 per cent over an hour, before recovering about half the losses.

The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which tracks some of the largest digital tokens, lost as much as 19 per cent at one point. 

El Salvador has become the first country to accept Bitcoin everywhere

The drop comes as Bitcoin faces one of its biggest test in its 12-year history as El Salvador became the first country to adopt it as legal tender

You can now pay for a burger using bitcoin, as businesses across the nation are advised to accept the digital coins as payment 

The Central American nation’s president, Nayib Bukele, said on Twitter that the digital wallet being used in the project can now be downloaded after it was shut down earlier because of technical glitches.  

The wallet, known as Chivo, comes pre-loaded with $30 worth of the currency for users who register with a Salvadoran national ID number

Millions of people are expected to download the government’s new digital wallet app.

More than 200 new cash machines are being installed across the country to enable dollars to be converted into Bitcoin.