Half a million using new bitcoin wallet
There are now more than half a million people using El Salvador's bitcoin wallet, President Nayib Bukele announced. The country of 6.6 million people this month became the first to adopt bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar, which has been the official currency for two decades.
"We currently have more than half a million users (of the Chivo wallet)," Bukele tweeted late Monday. The "Chivo Wallet" is an electronic application that Salvadorans can download -earning a $30 equivalent sign-up bonus in the process to make cryptocurrency transactions. Bukele added that the wallet's technical errors had mostly been resolved, and the software would be fully operational in days.
The initial rollout had met with difficulties as the Chivo software had crashed, with bitcoin losing some 17 percent of its value at one point. But Bukele wrote in his Twitter thread that "every day more and more businesses accept payments in bitcoin or dollars".
The govt says the project will give many Salvadorans access to banking services for the first time, and hopes it will shave millions off commissions on remittances, which account for more than a fifth of the country's GDP. But experts and regulators have highlighted concerns about the cryptocurrency's notorious volatility, its potential impact on price inflation in a nation with high poverty and unemployment, and the lack of protection for users.
Investors trod cautiously in early Asian trade Tuesday as they awaited US inflation data that could play a key role in determining when the Federal Reserve will start winding down its market-supporting monetary policy.
The first gain for Wall Street's S&P 500 and Dow after a five-day losing streak was not enough to spur a broad advance in Asia, though Tokyo clocked up its highest finish in 31 years on hopes for fresh stimulus. Experts are also keeping an eye on China after authorities tightened their grip on the tech sector as part of a wide-ranging regulatory crackdown against private enterprises.
But the main event this week is the release later Tuesday of US consumer price data, which comes days after figures showed the cost firms pay at the factory gate had risen last month at a record pace owing to a jump in demand as well as supply and labour shortages.
That report put pressure on the Fed to begin tapering its ultra-loose monetary policy as soon as November.
Expectations are for the consumer price reading to come in above five percent, with analysts warning that a reading well above that could force the central bank's hand in order to prevent inflation from spiralling out of control.
OANDA's Edward Moya said uncertainty over the reading would keep traders on the sidelines for now. "Investors don't want to have massive positions before the inflation data as the risks are to the upside as Covid inflation continues to hamper supply chains," he wrote in a commentary. "If inflation comes in hotter-thanexpected, taper expectations could shift from December to November."
Hong Kong and Shanghai led losses on concerns about troubled property titan Evergrande, which is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy owing hundreds of billions of dollars.
The firm on Tuesday warned it was under "tremendous pressure" as it deals with the cash crunch that many fear could send it under and have a severe impact on the Chinese economy.
Evergrande's Hong Kong-listed shares fell nearly 12 percent, and have lost around 80 percent since the start of the year. Wellington, Taipei, Manila and Bangkok also fell.
However, Tokyo finished at its highest level since 1990 on hopes that a new prime minister will introduce more stimulus for the stuttering Japanese economy.