Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Roselló, has announced his resignation in light of mounting political pressure. He will officially step down from office on August 2, 2019.
Roselló’s announcement comes days after the release of leaked chat messages that contained offensive comments about his political opponents and victims of Hurricane Maria. The resignation, however, could threaten the future of the cryptocurrency asset class in the region as he was a major proponent of the technology.
Roselló’s Resignation: A Roadblock to Cryptocurrency
Puerto Rico itself has been going through an economic slowdown. The island state is currently under billions of dollars worth of debt. Even before Hurricane Maria, which left a devastating impact on the island, the country needed urgent capital investment from abroad or private firms. Years of corruption, generous pensions, and entitlements had eaten up the state’s reserves, according to economic experts.Puerto Rico, with its low taxation and ease of access for US citizens, caught the attention of many cryptocurrency entrepreneurs early on. These individuals wanted to establish residency on the island in the hopes of avoiding heavy federal taxes on their newly made fortunes. They even offered to bring in investments to Puerto Rico and revive its economy. The governor, Ricardo Roselló, even appeared at a cryptocurrency conference earlier this year to lend his support. A Twitter user even claimed that Roselló mentioned ‘crypto’ during his resignation speech.#PuertoRico governor #Rosello just mentioned #Crypto in his speech #cryptocurrency #BTC #Bitcoin #ct #PuertoRicoProtests #puertorico #PuertoRicoMarcha $BTC @WapaTV #wapatv pic.twitter.com/umzMUAfTVO
— cryptowaikoah (@cryptowaikoah) July 25, 2019