On April 8, Honduran officials announced that the country would now accept bitcoin as legal tender, but only in a special economic zone called "Honduras Prospera".
At the end of March, Central American Honduras indicated its intention to accept bitcoin as legal tender. President Xiomara Castro said at the time that neighboring El Salvador could not be the only country to free itself from dollar hegemony. This announcement is a prize for accepting the cryptocurrency. However, it remains to be seen whether Honduras will extend the law beyond its special economic zone to the rest of the country.
Honduras Prospera was founded in 2020 as a center of economic development to attract investment and business opportunities. Located on the island of Roatan, about 65 kilometers off the north coast of Honduras, it boasts a tropical climate and evolving infrastructure with plans to turn the area into a futuristic corporate paradise.
Roatan is the first of many planned development centers in Honduras to follow Prospera's plan. Such projects may push for the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender throughout Honduras.
In accepting bitcoin as legal tender, Honduras officials said that the zone's fiscal and administrative autonomy "allows for crypto-innovation" and allows bitcoins to be used by all entities established there. The catch, however, is that Honduras Prospera is a geographically small area in Honduras, not the country itself. Roatán, which was founded in 2020, is still in the early stages of development and has not yet built the first residential units.
A statement by the Central Bank of Honduras points to friction between the country's command. As a result, the central bank says it cannot support cryptocurrencies, and activities of this type are the sole responsibility of the individual. Even so, what is happening to Prosper Honduras represents a broader upward trend related to the global acceptance of cryptocurrencies.
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