Panama City accepts taxes in Bitcoin, promoting autonomous adoption inspired by El Salvador.
It is also proposed to bring financial education to Panamanian schools.
The mayor of the city of Panama, Mayer Mizrachi, proposed at the Bitcoin Conference 2025, held in Las Vegas, allow ships to pay transit rates of the Panama Canal with Bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for priority at the crossroads. His proposal, inspired by the Salvadoran model, pursues the objective of transforming one of the world’s most strategic maritime corridors.
The central idea of what is raised by Mizrachi offers the clear operational benefit that The ships that opt for payments with Bitcoin would receive preferential treatment, which would result in a significant reduction of their waiting times, which can currently exceed ten days in high season. Mizrachi directly questioned investors and diplomats when asked: «What if you had a benefit to pay in Bitcoin? You would go faster ».
Mizrachi launched His idea yesterday, during a panel in which he was with the advisors of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in Bitcoin, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert. In his talk, everyone agreed that Panama and his neighboring country They can form a “Bitcoin Axis” in Central America. They believe that, achieving an alliance, Panama and El Salvador can challenge the perception that the region is the “backyard” of the globalists.
“Panama has a great hardware, but El Salvador has a great software,” they said, praising the pro-bitcoin policies driven by Bukele. Following your steps, Panama City also plans to implement educational programs on the pioneer digital currency In school libraries and open an “Bitcoin Embassy” to promote adoption.
For all this, the panel sees that Panama has the potential to emerge as a possible next reference after the success of El Salvador, and together, lead the growing impulse of the adoption of the digital currency in Central America.
In any case, Mizrachi told his proposal pass with Bitcoin for the Panama Canal, but it was only that, an idea that does not have a formulated plan, although his proposal does not arise isolated. It is actually a piece of a financial offensive that claims to be putting together.
His first step was to launch public payments with cryptocurrencies. As Cryptonotics reported, since April, residents of Panama City can pay their municipal taxes, fines and services with BTC, Ethher (ETH), Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). This, through a Towerbank bank system, which converts digital assets to dollars before transferring them to the municipality.
Nevertheless, The ambitious proposals of Mayor Mizrachi hang on a thread due to serious challenges that threaten its implementation. It is because the National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information (ANTAI) admitted, at the beginning of May, a complaint related to the contract established with TowerBank.
If the investigation proves the existence of a conflict of interest, this agreement could be annulled, which, although it would not completely cancel the payment model with cryptoactive, would force to seek and establish new alliances, considerably delaying the project.
