Bitcoin: The Unexpected Darling of Chile’s 2025 Election! 💰🇨🇱

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In a most curious turn of events, the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin has leapt from the shadows of niche policy discussions into the very heart of Chile’s presidential race. It appears that advisers to every major contender now regard this digital asset—and the mining industry that supports it—as a potential boon for their electoral fortunes, rather than a burden. Who would have thought? 😏

Bitcoin: A Most Unexpected Election Issue in 2025 Chile

One Daniel Batten, a venture capitalist hailing from the distant shores of New Zealand, has proclaimed to his followers on the platform X that “Bitcoin is shaping as an election issue for Chile in 2025.” He further opines that, after much deliberation across the political spectrum, no serious candidate dares to oppose this technology, for to do so would be akin to declaring oneself against the Internet—an act of political folly, indeed! 😱

Behind this rather audacious assertion lies a two-year campaign of lobbying, led by none other than Andrés Villagrán, a software engineer turned policy advocate. Since the year of our Lord 2023, Mr. Villagrán has escorted the esteemed US strategist Dennis Porter, chief executive of the Satoshi Action Fund, through the hallowed halls of Santiago’s committee rooms, advocating for Bitcoin mining as a remedy to the nation’s increasingly dire renewable-energy curtailment woes. In a recent missive dated May 18, he triumphantly declared, “Great progress in Chile this week! Met with presidential candidates on Bitcoin & its role in clean energy/efficiency. Pushing for inclusion in programs.” Bravo! 🎉

Mr. Villagrán’s eloquent arguments have found a receptive audience among legislators who are currently drafting a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) bill—an initiative that would permit the Central Bank to hold Bitcoin alongside gold and foreign currency. “In 2023, I embarked on an incredible journey… meeting over 20 parliamentarians and several ministers,” he noted earlier this year, emphasizing that further discussions with the Ministry of Finance are on the horizon.

Last week, Mr. Porter reinforced this message during a keynote address at the Chile Fintech Forum 2025, where he described the curtailment of renewable energy as “a crisis” that squanders six terawatt-hours of solar and wind energy annually. “When you combine variable renewable generation with a variable load like Bitcoin mining, you can absolutely and completely eliminate curtailment,” he asserted, arguing that miners’ ability to power down on demand renders them stabilizers of the grid rather than mere parasites. How delightfully ironic! 😄

@Dennis_Porter_ at #ChileFintechForum2025: Bitcoin mining could revolutionize our energy system. Send this video to politicians and demand they prioritize this. We have been informing Ministries, Deputies, and Senators about Bitcoin for quite some time now.

— Andrés Villagrán (@avillagran) May 15, 2025

The political class, it seems, has taken heed. According to aides privy to the briefings, both José Antonio Kast of the right-wing Republican Party and Evelyn Matthei of the centre-right Chile Vamos coalition—currently neck and neck at 17% in the latest Cadem survey—now frame Bitcoin as a matter of competitiveness rather than a speculative bubble. On the left, the Unity for Chile pact has scheduled a primary on June 29, featuring Carolina Tohá, Gonzalo Winter, Jeannette Jara, and Jaime Mulet, none of whom have dismissed Bitcoin-linked energy policy.

With opinion polling still in a state of flux six months prior to the first round on November 16, campaign strategists suggest that the debate may crystallize on June 20, when the first nationally televised candidates’ forum is expected to devote a segment to energy pricing and digital assets. Mr. Villagrán confirms that at least one contender has already pledged to raise the issue of Bitcoin mining that very night. How thrilling! 🎤

Whether the SBR bill will advance before the election remains a matter of speculation; the Central Bank’s board has expressed concerns regarding “volatility and liquidity” under IMF reserve-management rules, and President Gabriel Boric’s administration has maintained a stance of public neutrality. Yet, the political calculus has shifted. As Mr. Batten astutely observed, Chilean politicians have “learnt from the Democrats’ debacle in the US” and are determined not to find themselves on the wrong side of a technology that many voters now associate with innovation, affordable energy, and macro-hedging.

If this calculation holds true, November’s ballot may very well mark the first occasion in Latin America that a major economy approaches the polls with every viable presidential program containing a chapter on Bitcoin—an outcome that could hold significance not only for the global energy discourse but also for the future of digital currency itself.

At the time of this writing, Bitcoin trades at a staggering $105,385. What a time to be alive! 💸

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2025-05-20 21:44