Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices soared this week as sanctions on Russia push people towards Bitcoin.
The price of bitcoin is up more than 20% since falling below $35,000 per bitcoin last week. Meanwhile, the price of ethereum and smaller coins BNB, solana, cardano, XRP, luna, and avalanche also spiked.
Now, Samson Mow, chief strategy officer at bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream since 2017 and an advisor to El Salvador during its bitcoin adoption, has announced he is leaving the company to focus on promoting “nation-state bitcoin adoption.” and name Mexico as “on the list” of countries that could adopt bitcoin.
“I plan to focus on bitcoin adoption by nation-state,” Mow posted on Twitter announcing his departure and adding “it seems like a turning point in bitcoin’s evolution now – we are on the verge of mass adoption, and I think it can do make it happen faster.”
Mow, who said he would also be working at his game company Pixelmatic, last month had a Twitter exchange with Mexico’s third-richest man, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, about bitcoin mining in the North American country and had a run-in with Mexican senator Indira Kempis with whom he is working to make bitcoin legal tender in the country.
Today is my last day with @Blockstream. It’s been a grand adventure working with @adam3us for the last 5 years and together we’ve accomplished a great deal from sidechains, to mining, to satellites. So what’s next? I plan to focus on nation-state #Bitcoin adoption! ????????????
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) March 1, 2022
???? #ToTheMoon
Freedom and financial inclusion for Mexico ???????? ????@Excellion ???????? #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/f8Vh0mquEV– Indira Kempis de I. (@IndiraKempis) January 30, 2022
???????? I will… Remember, never give up, never surrender. https://t.co/5bYRxCGFVF
– Ricardo Salinas Pliego (@RicardoBSalinas) February 15, 2022
“I am working with people from various countries and it is still too early to say for sure, but the adoption of bitcoin will be inevitable in some form,” says Mow.
Some politicians in other countries in the region have also pushed for bitcoin adoption, though so far they are waiting and watching El Salvador’s controversial bitcoin experiment, in which the country has bought nearly 2,000 bitcoins.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has spearheaded the country’s adoption of bitcoin, taking on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after it demanded that he stop using bitcoin as legal tender.
Next month, El Salvador plans to issue a historic $1 billion bitcoin bond through Blocksteam’s Liquid platform that will finance bitcoin mining infrastructure on top of a volcano. Mow told Coindesk in December that the bond had attracted $300 million in soft commitments.
“With everything happening at the speed of light in El Salvador, and more and more countries interested in adopting bitcoin, I found that my time each day was no longer enough,” Mow said in his Twitter thread.
In January, Wall Street giant Fidelity predicted that other countries and even a central bank could follow El Salvador into bitcoin this year, saying that those who buy bitcoin while the price is low “will be better able to compete than their peers.” ».
“There is a high-stakes game theory at play here, according to which if bitcoin adoption increases, countries that secure some bitcoin today will be better competitive than their peers,” Fidelity analysts Chris Kuiper and Jack Neureuter wrote. in a note, adding that “I wouldn’t be surprised to see other sovereign nation-states acquire bitcoin in 2022 and perhaps even see a central bank make an acquisition.”