My First Bitcoin Shifts Focus to Global Education Initiatives

According to Cointelegraph, My First Bitcoin, an educational program based in El Salvador, has concluded its partnership with the country's Ministry of Education. The organization will now pivot from conducting local classes to supporting global Bitcoin education efforts. Having educated over 27,000 students in El Salvador about Bitcoin (BTC), the program aims to extend its reach by providing open-source materials and training tools to educators and community projects worldwide. In a statement released on Friday, My First Bitcoin announced the closure of its physical office in El Salvador and the transition to a fully remote work model. Founder John Dennehy expressed the organization's ambition to expand its impact from a national to a global scale, stating, "Our ambition was always to change the world, but we had to start with a single student, then a single city, then a single nation and now we are ready to raise the potential impact from 6 million people to 8 billion." Established in 2021 by American activist and journalist John Dennehy, My First Bitcoin initially provided free Bitcoin education to Salvadorans. In 2023, it partnered with El Salvador’s Ministry of Education to integrate its Bitcoin Diploma program into public schools by 2024. This development occurs as El Salvador reassesses its Bitcoin policies following a recent agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021 and began accumulating one Bitcoin per day shortly thereafter. However, in December 2024, the country secured a $1.4 billion financing agreement with the IMF, which included commitments to scale back its Bitcoin initiatives, thereby limiting its BTC accumulation plans. As part of the agreement, lawmakers amended the country's Bitcoin law in January to make BTC acceptance voluntary for businesses. In July, the IMF released a report indicating that El Salvador had not purchased any new Bitcoin since the December agreement. Despite this, the El Salvador Bitcoin Office’s website continues to display records of the government’s recurring Bitcoin purchases, with holdings amounting to 6,374 BTC, valued at approximately $654.8 million at the time of reporting.