Bitcoin Beach co-founder claims Bitcoiners want to move families to El Salvador

Roman Martinez, one of the co-founders of the Bitcoin Beach zone in El Salvador, claimed that “a lot of Bitcoiners” are considering the country as a place to resettle in response to international regulatory crackdowns on crypto.

Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on July 27, Martinez said some people who have felt excluded from traditional financial systems may be looking at El Salvador due in part to the country’s policies on Bitcoin (BTC). According to the Bitcoin Beach co-founder, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele may have opened the floodgates to other countries by supporting legislation adopting BTC as legal tender in 2021.

“A lot of families, individuals are seeing El Salvador as a Plan B,” said Martinez. “They’re buying properties, a lot of Bitcoiners, they’re moving to El Salvador to live there and they wanna raise their kids there.”

Martinez claimed he had heard of individuals based in Europe, the United States, and Canada considering El Salvador a more affordable place to raise a family and buy a home “living in a Bitcoin standard.” In April, President Bukele announced an initiative offering 5,000 foreign workers a pathway to citizenship.

Of the 6.5 million people living in El Salvador, roughly 95,000 were noncitizens or immigrants, 58% of which were from Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. That would leave roughly 55,000 from other countries, including the US.

Since taking office in 2019 and getting reelected in 2024, Bukele has branded himself as the “world’s coolest dictator” and helped pro-crypto legislation move forward in a legislature controlled by his political party. Critics have alleged Bukele has been responsible for authoritarian policies while president, with the police detaining individuals critical of his administration.