El Salvador Announces $1.6 Billion Investment That Will Kickstart ‘Bitcoin City’

El Salvador is getting a massive infrastructure investment that’s expected to support the buildout of its visionary “Bitcoin City.” The government said Sunday that Yilport, a Turkish holding company, will invest $1.62 billion in two of El Salvador’s seaports, marking the largest private investment in the country’s history.

“This will be a mixed-ownership company between the Yilport company and [El Salvador], which will operate both seaports for the next 50 years,” said the government in a video statement shared by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on Monday. The agreement is a product of Bukele’s visit to Turkey in 2022.

One of the ports involved is the Acajutla Seaport, which handles most of the nation’s exports of coffee, sugar, and balsamic salts from Peru. The other is the La Union Seaport, an inactive and neglected seaport located where Bitcoin City is planned for construction.

Stacy Herbert, head of El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office, retweeted a statement that the project will create “thousands of direct and indirect jobs” and “more investment in underlying local infrastructure.” Max Keiser, Herbert’s husband and also a member of the Bitcoin office, characterized the deal as a Bitcoin City infrastructure investment. “Bukele’s Turkey trip paid off BIGLY!” he wrote to Twitter. “Qatar on deck.”