How El Salvador President Nayib Bukele weaponized bitcoin to whitewash his government's growing authoritarianism on the world stage and spread local propaganda
SAN SALVADOR — Bitcoiners — enthusiasts of the world's most popular cryptocurrency — aren't supposed to trust government. Tweets: @timmuth , @fredbenenson , @schwarz , @stalfel , @gladstein , @nytopinion , @arturo_p_a , @senyorreporter , @mpaarlberg , @eurodale , @el_reportero , @ben_mckenzie , @nytopinion , @nytopinion , @raudaz_ , @jp_koning , @mdudas , @nytopinion , @ncweaver , @fraying , and @silvermanjacob Tweets: Tim Muth / @timmuth : “Bukele is not building a techno-utopia; he's building a run-of-the-mill authoritarian state in a tech disguise.” — Nelson Rauda on the Bitcoin bros self-serving adulation of Bukele. https://twitter.com/... @fredbenenson : If you still think Bitcoin is a net positive for human rights in developing nations, you're either lying to yourself or complicit with the autocrats or both. And the number of western elites (investors, CEOs, etc) in denial about this is maddening. https://www.nytimes.com/... Jon Schwarz / @schwarz : If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever — as the boot tweets incessantly about the liberatory nature of Bitcoin https://nytimes.com/... by @raudaz_ Felix Stalder / @stalfel : One for the “crypto will help poor people in corrupt/authoritarian countries” crowd. Crypto is part of corruption and authoritarianism. https://www.nytimes.com/... Alex Gladstein / @gladstein : “Bitcoiners aren't supposed to trust government. After all, one of Bitcoin's premises is to separate money from the state. But what happens when the enthusiast is the state?” A perspective to consider from Salvadoran investigative journalist @raudaz_ https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytopinion : “Over the past three months, the government has used a state of emergency to imprison almost 40,000 people, often without defense,” writes @raudaz_ from El Salvador. https://www.nytimes.com/... Arturo Portilla / @arturo_p_a : This is the most desolating piece I've read on Bukele and Bitcoin. “It's pretty obvious to anyone who visits El Salvador [...] that Mr. Bukele is not building a techno-utopia; he's building a run-of-the-mill authoritarian state in a tech disguise.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Tim Steller / @senyorreporter : In El Salvador, Pres. Bukele is not building a crypto-utopia, @raudaz_ says. “He's building a run-of-the-mill authoritarian state in a tech disguise.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Michael Paarlberg / @mpaarlberg : .@raudaz_ is correct: what was sold as banking for the unbanked was really a hail mary to finance a deeply indebted authoritarian state with worthless bonds https://www.nytimes.com/... Erik Dale / @eurodale : Probably the best critique I've read of of #Bitcoin in a long while. While it's exciting (and I sure was excited in ES and at Bukele's party) to have our thesis validated by adoption, we should be very cautious not to be coopted. https://www.nytimes.com/... David Agren / @el_reportero : “A large number of the president's messages about Bitcoin are in English because they are designed for Bitcoin believers, not the Salvadoran people, even though the project is funded by taxpayer money.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Ben McKenzie / @ben_mckenzie : @raudaz_ breaks down what is happening in El Salvador w/Bitcoin. Remember this name: Nelson Rauda Zablah. You will be hearing a lot more of it. https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytopinion : Bitcoiners would do well to remember that when they cheer for President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, “they're not ushering in the technology of the future; they're enabling a regime that's violating the human rights of its citizens,” writes @raudaz_. https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytopinion : In El Salvador, writes @raudaz_, “Bitcoin believers are promoting a product — and lining their pockets — at the expense of our rights and livelihoods.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Nelson Rauda Zablah / @raudaz_ : When Bitcoiners cheer for President Bukele, they're not ushering in the technology of the future; they're enabling a regime that's violating the human rights of its citizens. My column for the @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... John Paul Koning / @jp_koning : “Bitcoin is the regime's currency, primarily designed for foreign crypto enthusiasts,” writes @raudaz_. “A large number of the president's messages about Bitcoin are in English because they are designed for Bitcoin believers, not the Salvadoran people.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... @mdudas : Salvadoran journalist from @elfaroenglish: “It's obvious to anyone who visits any place in El Salvador other than its beaches that Mr. Bukele is not building a techno-utopia; he's building a run-of-the-mill authoritarian state in a tech disguise” https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytopinion : Some have suggested it's good “to have these crypto influencers reshaping the image of El Salvador before the world, that there's some sort of invaluable rebranding happening by someone paying for a coconut in Bitcoin,” writes @raudaz_. “It's a mirage.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Nicholas Weaver / @ncweaver : The El Salvador Bitcoin “Experiment” has not only been an economic disaster, but also proof that Bitcoin can NEVER work. Why? https://www.nytimes.com/... Derek Powazek / @fraying : Weird, it's the same in the US, too. https://www.nytimes.com/... Jacob Silverman / @silvermanjacob : “It's pretty obvious to anyone who visits any place in El Salvador other than its beaches that Mr. Bukele is not building a techno-utopia; he's building a run-of-the-mill authoritarian state in a tech disguise.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This NYT analysis lands a year after El Salvador's forced bitcoin rollout, which the paper had already framed as an imposition on an unwilling population by an increasingly authoritarian ruler. What changed by mid-2022 is the framing: the story is no longer just about whether bitcoin helps Salvadorans, but about who the policy was actually written for.
First-order effects
- Salvadoran taxpayers are financing a bitcoin project whose messaging runs in English and targets foreign crypto believers rather than citizens, per the government's own publishing pattern.
- Bitcoiners like Alex Gladstein who promoted the adoption are now publicly attached to a regime accused of human-rights violations under its state of emergency detentions.
Second-order effects
- The rollout doubles as a financing maneuver: bitcoin-linked bonds give a deeply indebted government a new channel to raise money outside conventional lenders.
- Foreign crypto evangelists face a legitimacy problem of their own — their endorsement made them co-owners of a project that later reporting shows failing among ordinary Salvadorans.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, national crypto adoption becomes a template for reputation laundering: indebted or sanctioned-leaning governments buying credibility with Western crypto communities rather than delivering financial liberty at home.
- The gap between adoption rhetoric and usage — later measured with most citizens not using BTC — sets up a collision with institutions like the IMF that want legal-tender status reversed, forcing governments to choose between crypto signaling and creditworthiness.
The trend: Nation-state bitcoin adoption is hardening into a soft-power instrument, where the audience is foreign crypto believers and the currency's domestic failure matters less than the regime image it buys.