The Honduran Special Economic Zone has adopted bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as legal tender for the Honduras Prospera. The Honduras Prospera is an economic zone established in 2020 as a means to encourage investment.
Honduras Prospera has autonomy on fiscal, budgetary, and administrative issues for the economic zones. This autonomy gives it the ability to approve the use of cryptocurrencies by residents, governments, and businesses. Local, municipal, and international firms will also be allowed to issue bitcoin bonds in their areas of jurisdiction.
“Prospera’s flexible regulatory framework enables crypto-innovation and the use of bitcoin by residents, businesses, and government,” Honduras Prospera said in a statement.
The special economic zone is following in the footsteps of El Salvador which adopted bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021, becoming the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
Despite the move by the special economic zone to accept cryptocurrencies as legal tender, the central bank of Honduras says it cannot vouch for cryptocurrencies. The bank said in a March statement, “Any transactions carried out with this type of virtual asset falls under the responsibility and risk of the person carrying it out.”
