Bitcoin’s environmental and macro-economic implications have vaulted the cryptocurrency from a niche policy matter into the thick of Chile’s presidential race, with advisers to every major contender treating the asset—and the mining industry that underpins it—as a potential vote-winner rather than a liability.
The political class has taken notice. According to campaign aides with knowledge of the briefings, both José Antonio Kast of the right-wing Republican Party and Evelyn Matthei of the centre-right Chile Vamos coalition—currently tied at 17% in the latest Cadem survey—now frame Bitcoin as a competitiveness issue rather than a speculative bubble. On the left, the Unity for Chile pact has slated a 29 June primary featuring Carolina Tohá, Gonzalo Winter, Jeannette Jara and Jaime Mulet, none of whom has ruled out Bitcoin-linked energy policy.
With opinion polling still volatile six months before the 16 November first round, campaign strategists say the debate could crystallise on 20 June, when the first nationally televised candidates’ forum is expected to devote a segment to energy pricing and digital assets. Villagrán confirms that at least one contender has already pledged on the record to raise Bitcoin mining that night.
Whether the SBR bill advances before the election remains uncertain; the Central Bank’s board has warned of “volatility and liquidity concerns” under IMF reserve-management rules, and President Gabriel Boric’s administration has maintained public neutrality. Yet the political cost–benefit has shifted. As Batten put it, Chilean politicians have “learnt from the Democrats’ debacle in the US” and are determined not to be caught on the wrong side of a technology that many voters now equate with innovation, cheap power and macro-hedging.
If that calculation holds, November’s ballot could mark the first time in Latin America that a major economy heads to the polls with every viable presidential programme containing a chapter on Bitcoin—an outcome that may matter as much to the global energy debate as to the future of digital money.
At press time, BTC traded at $105,385.
