Estonia Will Not Open Doors For BTC Despite Pressure From Coinbase

Estonia will not open its doors for Bitcoin and won’t make it a legal tender accoridng to Prime Minister Kaja Kallas so let’s find out more in our latest Bitcoin news today.

The Prime minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas opined that the country should be very careful about employing crypto in its economic system and added that even one of the leading crypto exchanges Coinbase, urged the governemnt to the country to make BTC a legal tender. However, Kallas doesn’t feel positive about the idea. The recently elected Prime Minister of Estonia seems to have quite a negative stance on crypto. The leader of the Reform Party thinks that digital assets play a huge role in cyberattacks and ransomware and as such, the EU member is reluctant to embrace crypto:

“We are sensitive to these issues, and the cryptocurrency, how it is used, it’s a big problem, because you see the cyberattacks and how easily companies are paying out [ransom] money.”

Kallas also renounced the rumors that Estonia will be among the first countries in the EU to regulate crypto but this could have been possible by the time of her successor who is a big proponent of crypto. However, things look different with her in charge now. The politician was not supportive of El Salvador’s move to make BTC a legal tender as well and when asked whether Estonia will copy the initiative, Kallas rejected the idea:

“Ha! How is that going by the way? What I see in El Salvador is not going that well, to my understanding.”

The Prime Minister revealed that companies such as Coinbase pressured the Estonian governemnt to recognize BTC as a payment instrument but Kallas said she’s a little bit reluctant to be positive about the idea. Coinbase and other BTC companies approached her and urged her to make it legal in Estonia. Unlike other nations, Estonia expressed a strong belief in its authorities in terms of digital asset regulations. More than 70% of the locals prefer the government to set up rules for crypto while only 30% put their trust in the EU. Estonia ranked second in Europe with these statistics while the Netherlands is the first with 76%.

It’s worth noting that rising proportions of Estonians are in favor of creating national digital currencies as an option to gain monetary independence from the EU and the country is one of the top three nations in this statistic with 39% supporting the initiative, however Estonia will not open its doors to crypto.