15 years ago almost nobody had heard of Bitcoin. Now, it’s a frequent topic of global debate. Today, we head to the tiny Central American nation of El Salvador that’s turned heads worldwide, sparking hope and controversy, and a fierce U.S. discussion about the future of money. Could El Salvador’s gamble reshape global finance—and what about America’s economic edge?

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Jorge Cruz Rubio runs Cherito Specialty BitCafé Roasters, a coffee shop featuring his homegrown Salvadoran blends

Jorge Cruz Rubio: Wonderful coffee, this is Pacas Semi-Washed.

He also owns a mobile “BitCafe” truck.

Sharyl: What percentage of your customers would you say pay in Bitcoin?

Rubio: Bitcoin right now it’s about 60, six, to seven. Here at this precise location where we are.

Sharyl: 60 to 70%?

Rubio: 60 to 70%, of which a good 40% are international folks visiting El Salvador or relocating to El Salvador.

He says his businesses and three farms are “all in” on the promise of Bitcoin, no bank fees, no middleman, no taxes, no regulation making his coffee taste like freedom.

Rubio: People will see if ‘Cherito can do it with this little street cart, anybody else can.’ And you don’t need a bank. This is where you bypass American Express Visa, MasterCard.

Sharyl: And the fees?

Rubio: And the fees.

Few would have predicted that El Salvador—a country emerging from decades of civil war and gang violence— would be first to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

President Bukele made the announcement in Miami in 2021.

President Nayib Bukele (June 4, 2021): Next week I will send to Congress a bill that will make Bitcoin a legal tender in El Salvador.

He promised his country that Bitcoin would provide a path to economic independence while attracting foreign investment and tourism. A key challenge: How to get the people back home where 70% don’t even use a bank, to adopt an E-currency few fully understand.

The answer starts up this path leading to the modest headquarters of El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office.

Stacy Herbert: So what he did by making Bitcoin legal tender is he took all the world’s media and they focused right on little El Salvador.

Stacey Herbert and Max Keiser, a transplanted American couple, lead El Salvador’s Bitcoin push. They’ve promoted Bitcoin as the smart bet since it was worth 30-cents in 2010. Now, one coin has soared as high as 122-thousand dollars.

Herbert: El Salvador was pretty much a failed state before President Bukele took office in 2019. So into this mix comes President Bukele. And he promised the people that where El Salvador is going to the place we want to be. We don’t want to be a failed state. We want to be a great country. And that’s where we’re headed in El Salvador.

Max Keiser: And I hate to be the bearer of nasty truths, but there will be a time when the U.S. government, these various governments come to Bitcoiners with their begging bowl, hoping for a bailout, and all they can do is print money. And when you print money, it makes our Bitcoin worth more. So go ahead, print all the money you want. You’re just making us fabulously wealthy and completely individually sovereign and completely not tied to you in any way, shape, or form.

An early PR strategy focused on this sun-drenched beach in El Salvador where surfers enjoy world-class waves and vendors post signs welcoming payment with Bitcoin.

Sharyl (on-camera): El Zonte is called “Bitcoin Beach.” Local businesses adopted the currency early on, making this, in some respects, the heart of El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment.

It did fuel a tourism boom. Last year this country with just 6 million residents boasted 3.9 million visitors— 43% of them from the U.S., drawn by the new publicity and curiosity.

El Salvador has taken the lead, but other countries are flirting with Bitcoin. An effort to adopt Bitcoin in The Central African Republic failed— but its use is expanding in other African nations. The governments of Bhutan, the UK, Ukraine, and Iran are holding billions in Bitcoin. A dozen other countries are eyeing crypto reserves.

Meantime, China has banned Bitcoin use.

As for the U.S. In 2021, President Trump called Bitcoin a scam— but has since embraced it as part of his pro-crypto agenda, pledging to make the U,S. a global leader. In March he established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that now holds more than $21 billion in Bitcoin.

During our visit to El Salvador, he signed a law establishing rules for stablecoin, another kind of electronic currency.

Sharyl: Have you spoken with anybody in the Trump orbit or President Trump himself about a strategy? Or has anyone reached out to you?

Herbert: We recently met with the executive director of the Crypto for President Trump. I have very high hopes for the direction that the United States is going should of course, any of the opposition not prevent economic liberty from thriving in the United States.

For all the hype, there are many critics.

Claudia Ortiz: Government gave away a lot of public money to invest in this project. And this project failed.

Lawmaker Claudia Ortiz is a lead opposition voice in El Salvador.

Ortiz: Bitcoin as like a novelty that attracts some people to El Salvador to witness how was this experiment going on? How did it work? I think that’s over, right? Many tourists came and they actually realized that it wasn’t that easy to buy everything with Bitcoin. So actually it didn’t work well.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin bet has also drawn pushback from the International Monetary Fund or IMF. The global financial aid group held back crucial loans after the country adopted Bitcoin, calling it “risky”. Critics called it pressure to favor traditional banking. In February, they struck a $1.4 billion bailout deal but only after El Salvador agreed to halt Bitcoin buys for more than three years and make other concessions to curb its crypto ambitions.

Sharyl: A lot of people criticized the strategy of using Bitcoin as an official currency. They reported that the president here has stepped back from, or backed off of, or stepping back from Bitcoin. What do you say about that?

Herbert: I run the National Bitcoin office for President Bukele, and I can tell you for 100% that we have not backed off Bitcoin in any way. We have the world’s first strategic Bitcoin reserve. We’re in the top seven countries in the world with Bitcoin holdings. This is from a country that was a failed state only five, six years ago. Like, that’s how you can transform that fast with Bitcoin. It’s just ridiculous to think, anybody who hasn’t been here to El Salvador, would have any commentary to make about what we’re doing with Bitcoin when they barely understand Bitcoin itself.

If success is measured by how many use Bitcoin and how many businesses accept it— then El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment has achieved modest gains. One survey pegged public usage at just 8% last year.

For Rubio, it’s not about mass adoption. Bitcoin a symbol of freedom from banks and government oversight. He pays this employee in Bitcoin— no income taxes that way— offers discounts to Bitcoin users, and is teaching his peers how to use it.

Rubio: Now I’m proud to say that I’m able to influence my providers. For example, the people who bring me the water, if they want me to purchase water from them, they have to accept Bitcoin. The people who sell me different items, the mugs, anything, has to accept Bitcoin.

Not everyone’s riding the wave. But for Bitcoin backers, the rest of the world faces a choice: join the financial revolution or risk getting wiped out.

Keiser: I think Saifedean Ammous, who wrote The Bitcoin Standard, who said ‘Bitcoin is like gunpowder’. Once gunpowder came around, either you adopted it or you were adopted by countries who adopted it. It’s that much a defining change in global geopolitics. So either you’ve got it or you’re gonna be relegated to the dust of history.

Sharyl (on-camera): Based on today’s value, it’s estimated El Salvador’s Bitcoin investment has nearly tripled in value.

Watch video here.