Miss Universe El Salvador Walks the Stage Holding Giant Bitcoin Staff

Alejandra Guajardo, El Salvador’s consultant at Miss Universe 71, wore a Bitcoin-themed outfit through the pageant’s Nationwide Costume Present on Wednesday evening. 

The forex ensemble was designed by plastic artist Francisco Guerrero however positioned a particular emphasis on the reigning king of digital belongings. Guajardo wielded a workers with Bitcoin’s emblem offered on the tip, and a colón—one of many nation’s beforehand accepted currencies—embellished with cocoa beans strapped on her again. 

“This look represents El Salvador’s historical past of forex,” said the pageant announcer. “For a very long time, cocoa was used, after which the colón, till it was changed by the U.S. greenback.” After which, after all, got here Bitcoin.

El Salvador grew to become the primary nation on the earth to make Bitcoin authorized tender in 2021. The transfer was largely met with skepticism and concern from the worldwide neighborhood, together with the International Monetary Fund and World Financial institution. U.S. legislators additionally raised alarms that El Salvador’s Bitcoin agenda might trigger monetary instability within the nation and weaken U.S. sanctions insurance policies.

Though Bitcoin’s value has fallen over 50% for the reason that legislation took impact, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has remained a steadfast flagbearer for the digital forex. He’s been concerned in selling quite a few BTC adoption initiatives—although it’s unclear if he had any direct position in Guajardo’s alternative in wardrobe for the pageant.

“You don’t want a sash to stroll round dressed as money, like El Salvador,” the pageant’s announcer stated through the broadcast. 

The mannequin’s costume ultimately yr’s pageant was devoted to calling for justice in opposition to girls murdered in El Salvador. Bukele started arresting civilians en masse in 2022 in an effort to fight the nation’s associated crime wave. El Salvador’s homicide fee has since declined by 56%, based on the Bukele authorities’s personal figures.

In the meantime, El Salvador passed its Digital Securities Legislation on Wednesday, offering a framework for strict client protections within the broader crypto market whereas “establishing that we’re open for enterprise to all those that want to construct the longer term with us on Bitcoin,” per the nation’s Nationwide Bitcoin Workplace. 

It additionally paves the best way for El Salvador’s so-called Volcano bonds—a $1 billion bond issuance plan that may make investments proceeds into each shopping for Bitcoin and constructing out its geothermal-powered “Bitcoin Metropolis.”