Bitcoin payments nearly vanish at El Salvador’s 'Bitcoin Beach'

Bitcoin payments have nearly disappeared in El Zonte, also known as Bitcoin Beach, one of El Salvador’s best-known Bitcoin hubs in the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, Bitcoin.com reported. Bitcoin Core developer Jon Atack said that when Jon Atack tried to pay with Bitcoin at a restaurant in El Zonte, a staff member replied in English, "this month’s first Bitcoin payment." Local merchants said most customers now use credit cards or cash, unlike in the past, and that Bitcoin usage has fallen so much that some staff have even forgotten how to use Bitcoin apps. Experts said the decline reflects a structural economic issue in which users, expecting Bitcoin prices to rise, are becoming more inclined to hold it as an asset under a stronger HODL mentality rather than spend it, weakening its function as a circulating currency.