Colombian president Gustavo Petro has officially become a Bitcoin owner. He didn’t buy crypto, though. Colombia’s head of state received 100,000 sats (satoshi, the smallest unit of the Bitcoin currency) from Samson Mow, who rushed to share the news on Twitter, revealing that Petro “is now a #Bitcoin HODLer for sure.”
The gift is nice, but hardly handsome, as it’s the equivalent of about 40 dollars. Still, it’s a nifty PR stunt for Mow, a former chief strategy officer of Blockstream and currently the CEO of JAN3, a tech company focused on expanding access to Bitcoin, with a declared mission “to accelerate hyperbitcoinization.”
Satoshis changed hands during the president’s meeting with a delegation led by Mow. The Chinese-Canadian crypto entrepreneur has actively advocated Bitcoin adoption in the Latin America region for several years (JAN3 is registered Próspera ZEDE, a private city and special economic zone on the island of Roatán in Honduras ).
Notably, he’s been an advisor to Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador. First, during the country’s Bitcoin adoption. Then, the collaboration evolved to include the famous Bitcoin City project. Recently, Mow has also revealed his plans to meet with the newly elected president of Argentina, Javier Milei, a Bitcoin enthusiast and a self-described anarcho-capitalist.
On his way south, he stopped in Columbia, where prospects for developing the Bitcoin economy look bright. At the meeting with the delegation, Petro announced plans to set up working groups in the public administration and work cooperatives to promote crypto use in the Colombian economy and support its growth.
Petro, who took the post in 2022, already declared his interest in crypto in 2017, elaborating on the “strength” of Bitcoin in social media. He remarked that cryptocurrencies could help take power back from banks and governments and give it back to the people. On a different occasion, he lifted the subject to the plane of metaphysics, noting that “virtual currency is pure information and therefore energy.”
