Two Polynesian nations to embrace crypto

More sovereign nations are on their way to adopt crypto.

A small island nation of Tonga announced its plans to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, copying the legal framework of El Salvador.

Tongans currently use the pa’anga, a currency pegged to a basket of the Australian, New Zealand, and US dollars and the Japanese yen. By acknowledging Bitcoin Tonga will allow its citizens to save up to 20% in remittance fees (remittances represent 30% of household income), and put itself on the map as a destination for digital nomads ?️

Palau, another Oceanian island, has got crypto plans too. In November’21 the tiny republic signed a partnership with Ripple focused on the development of USD-pegged stablecoin backed by the government (it currently uses USD as state currency).

Yesterday Palau announced another deal struck with Cryptic Labs aiming at launching a blockchain-based digital residency program. Cryptic Labs is a US-based company specialized in blockchain-powered KYC and secure ID verification, which are crucial in keeping the e-residency fraud-free.

Of course, both Tonga and Palau are small countries: Tonga is home to 100k people (another 126k tongans are estimated to live abroad), and Palau – to only 18k. They are sovereign nations however, which means that their use of crypto will solidify its position on the international scene, and add to the international law conundrums created by El Salvador’s Bitcoin law.

There are 195 countries in the world. How many will use Bitcoin as legal tender in 10 years?