In another milestone for the adoption of Bitcoin in Latin America, the Panama City Council voted to approve Bitcoin’s acceptance and other digital currencies for municipal services, which makes it the first public institution of the country to do so.
The news was announced by the mayor of the city of Panama, Mayer Mizrachi, in X (previously Twitter), who fixed:
“The Council of the City of Panama has just voted in favor of becoming the first public institution of the government to accept payments in Crypto. Citizens can now pay taxes, rates, tickets and permits completely in cryptography from BTC, ETH, USDC, USDT.”
This decision establishes the city of Panama on a more progressive path, which allows residents to interact with their local government using bitcoin for daily transactions. Mizrachi too explained How this was achieved without the need for a new legislation, an obstacle that had stagnated previous efforts.
“Previous Administrations tried to promote a bill in the Senate to do this possible, but we find a simple way to do so without new legislation. Legally, public institutions must receive funds in $, so we associate with a bank that will be in charge of the transaction, receptive in cryptography and become in place to $. This allows free flow of cryptocurrencies throughout the economy and the total government.”
The office of the mayor of the city of Panama also confirmed the news in its official social networks channels, saying:
“We will soon become the first public institution in the country to allow the payment of municipal services in cryptocurrencies, through an authorized bank that will be responsible for converting income into dollars for the mayor’s office.”
Mayor Mizrachi too revealed that the agreement with the banking partner will be completed Next week:
“Deal will be signed next week in the blockchain conflict in Panama. Be attentive to the signing of the agreement next week.”
