A massive bitcoin price pump has been proposed by leading industry figures to celebrate El Salvador officially adopting the cryptocurrency as legal tender on 7 September.
Popular crypto forums on Reddit, as well as prominent Twitter accounts, have called on people to buy $30 of bitcoin to coincide with the Bitcoin Law coming into effect, which will see every citizen in El Salvador offered $30 in bitcoin through a specialised wallet app.
>> Follow all the latest crypto market updates with The Independent’s live blog
As part of the law, citizens of El Salvador will have access to $30 in bitcoin from the government through a specialised wallet app.
One popular post on the sub-Reddit r/Bitcoin called for a “Global Bitcoin Day” where people invest what they can in the cryptocurrency every year on 7 September.
“Let’s make September 7th Global Bitcoin Day! In support and celebration of BTC officially becoming legal tender in El Salvador we should mint this day as a day of support on an annual basis,” the post stated.
“The Reddit community alone can add billions of dollars to BTC’s market cap.”
Bitcoin crossed $50,000 over the weekend and has continued to rise at the start of the week – potentially in anticipation of the price pump.
Bitcoin’s notorious volatility makes any price prediction difficult but a similar phenomenon was seen in May when fans of dogecoin invested heavily in the meme-inspired cryptocurrency ahead of Elon Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live.
The SpaceX and Tesla boss was widely expected to make references to dogecoin and bring it to mainstream attention, with fans hoping it could hit $0.69 during his time hosting the show on 8 May.
Dogecoin’s price rose from around $0.25 in the weeks leading up to the date and hit the target during the broadcast before eventually peaking at $0.74. It has since crashed and is now trading at around $0.30.
Bitcoin remains a long way off its peak of $64,000, which it hit in mid April, however it has staged a remarkable recover in recent months.
( )
Some analysts believe bitcoin could see new record highs before the end of 2021, with some projections putting its price above $100,000 by Christmas.
Prominent figures supporting the latest price pump include Danny Scott, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CoinCorner, and Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy.
MicroStrategy is the world’s biggest corporate investor in bitcoin, having recently added a further 4,000 bitcoins to its already considerable balance sheet. The software firm now holds nearly 109,000 bitcoins, worth more than $5.5 billion at today’s rates, and Mr Saylor has signalled that another purchase could happen on 7 September.
“Every cyber hornet I know is planning to buy $30 in BTC tomorrow in solidarity with the people of El Salvador,” he tweeted on Monday. “Will you join us?”