Próspera, a private city on the island of Roatán, Honduras, has become the world’s first jurisdiction to recognize bitcoin as a unit of account.

A provision enacted on Jan. 05 by the Próspera Zone for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDE) recognizes BTC as a unit available to track the market value of goods and services traded in the city.

The move aims to enable more financial freedom for individuals and companies operating in the zone, said Jorge Colindres, Próspera’s technical secretary.

“At @ProsperaZEDE we believe in the right to financial freedom and monetary freedom. People should be free to make transactions, keep their accounts and file taxes in the currency of their free choice,” the secretary wrote yesterday on Twitter.

Latin America Embraces Bitcoin

Próspera now appends itself to the larger group of Latin American localities that have embraced Bitcoin. El Salvador became the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender in Sep. 2022, with Mexican senator Indira Khempis pushing forward pro-Bitcoin legislation.

Honduras as a whole has been a slow adopter of crypto. It ranks 22nd for total crypto value received as per Chainalysis’ 2023 Crypto Adoption report, and digital asset market penetration is projected to hit less than 2% in 2024 according to Statista.

While still subject to Honduran authority, ZEDE’s are a type of administrative division that allows for its own administrative, economic, and legal structure–similar to that of Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong.

Colindres has called ZEDE’s the most competitive regime in Latin America, alleging that in the past three years they have attracted more than $100 million in investments and generated more than 3,000 jobs.

Próspera ZEDE was created in May 2020 by Erick Brimen, and in April 2022 made Bitcoin legal tender.