When a president boasts that he manages the country’s wealth from his smartphone while naked, it hardly inspires confidence. Even less so in a country that has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 84% and least of all when the president is investing in bitcoin, which last week fell to its lowest value in 18 months. Welcome to El Salvador, which became a tech bro’s playground a year ago, when President Nayib Bukele, its social-media-obsessed leader, made the cryptocurrency legal tender.

In June last year, at a cryptocurrency conference in Miami, Mr Bukele announced that the Central American country would be the first to adopt bitcoin as an official currency, alongside the American dollar. In September, a day before passing the so-called bitcoin law, which made it compulsory for businesses to accept the cryptocurrency, Mr Bukele also started to use public funds to invest in bitcoin.