Billionaire investor and venture capitalist Tim Draper has reportedly been trying to convince the Sri Lankan government to adopt bitcoin. However, the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka rejected his recommendation, emphasizing: “100% bitcoin adoption will never be a reality in Sri Lanka.”
Tim Draper Suggests Sri Lanka Embrace Bitcoin
Billionaire investor and venture capitalist Tim Draper reportedly tried to convince the Sri Lankan government and central bank to adopt bitcoin during his visit to the South Asian country earlier this week to film an episode of his talk show. television “Meet the Drapers” with local businessmen.
The billionaire met with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday to introduce bitcoin adoption, Bloomberg reported, adding that he then visited Sri Lanka’s central bank the next day with the same speech.
Wearing a bitcoin necktie, Draper was quoted as saying, “I come to the central bank with a decentralized currency.” However, the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Nandalal Weerasinghe, responded:
We do not accept… 100% bitcoin adoption will never be a reality in Sri Lanka.
Fuel and food shortages in Sri Lanka sparked riots last year. The president at that time fled the indebted country and later resigned. Sri Lanka’s key inflation rate stood at 54.2% in January, and the economy contracted 8% last year, the governor detailed.
Draper told the central bank chief that he is “a little worried about you guys”, explaining:
Have you seen Sri Lanka on the news? It is known as the capital of corruption. A country known for corruption will be able to keep perfect records with bitcoin adoption.
The billionaire VC kept trying to convince Weerasinghe during their 30-minute meeting. He even cited El Salvador, which became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar in September 2021.
“Does the administration have the guts to do it?” Draper asked the governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank as he pushed for bitcoin adoption. “What is the advantage of having your own currency?”
However, Weerasinghe responded:
We do not want to make the crisis worse by introducing bitcoin.
Draper has launched bitcoin adoption to several other countries and received better responses than he did from the Sri Lankan government and central bank. The small Pacific island country of Palau, for example, made him the founding resident of its digital residency program.
The billionaire has long been bullish on bitcoin due to the cryptocurrency’s trait as an inflation hedge. In November of last year, he predicted that BTC it should hit $250K by mid-2023.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has warned the public several times about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies. In July last year, the central bank published a notice warning that virtual currencies “are considered unregulated financial instruments and have no regulatory oversight or safeguards related to their use in Sri Lanka.” The authority added that it “has not granted any license or authorization to any entity or company to operate schemes involving virtual currencies, including cryptocurrencies.”
Do you think Sri Lanka should adopt bitcoin as billionaire Tim Draper suggested? Let us know in the comments section.
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