The Tenerife Island Council (Canary Islands, Spain) will sell the leading cryptocurrency held in its reserves. The instruction was given by the head of the governing body, Pedro Martín, according to El Economista.
The previous administration invested in the digital asset through the Technological Institute for Renewable Energy (ITER). In Martín’s view, Bitcoin is an “opaque currency” with which public institutions should not engage on ethical grounds.
“What surprised me is that we could have a Bitcoin account based on ITER. This is a very strange situation […] I believe that this currency is unacceptable for the treasury,” said the head of the council.
Martín did not specify how much Bitcoin the local government holds. Media estimates put potential proceeds from the sale at over $1 million. That equates to roughly 19 BTC at the rate at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.
Earlier, Deutsche Bank analysts called Bitcoin ‘too important‘ to ignore. In their view, digital gold will continue to rise as long as it attracts new large investors.
As ESMA warned in March 2021 about the risks of investing in the leading cryptocurrency.