According to reports, billionaire investor and venture capitalist Tim Draper has pushed for the adoption of bitcoin by the Sri Lankan government. Asserting that “Adoption of 100% Bitcoin won’t be a Sri Lanka reality ever,” the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka rejected his recommendation.

The day after meeting with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe to urge the nation to adopt bitcoin on Tuesday, the billionaire made the same appeal to the island nation’s central bank.

“I come to the central bank with decentralized currency,” Draper was quoted as saying while sporting a bitcoin tie. However, Sri Lankan Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe replied: “We don’t accept … Adoption of 100% bitcoin won’t be a Sri Lanka reality ever.”

The lack of food and fuel in Sri Lanka last year sparked riots. The country’s president at the time left the indebted nation and resigned later. According to the governor, Sri Lanka’s main inflation rate was 54.2% in January and the country’s economy shrank by 8% in 2016.

Draper told the central bank chief that he is a little worried about Sri Lanka, elaborating: “Have you seen Sri Lanka in the news? It’s known as the corruption capital. A country known for corruption will be able to keep perfect records with the adoption of bitcoin.”

Throughout their 30-minute meeting, the billionaire VC persisted in trying to persuade Weerasinghe. He even mentioned El Salvador, which in September 2021 became the first nation to accept bitcoin in addition to the US dollar as legal tender.

“Does the administration have the guts to do it?” Draper asked the Sri Lankan central bank governor as he pushed for bitcoin adoption. “What’s the advantage of having your own currency?” However, Weerasinghe replied: “We don’t want to make the crisis worse by introducing bitcoin.”

Draper has pitched bitcoin adoption to several other countries and received better responses than he did from the Sri Lankan government and central bank. The tiny island country of Palau in the Pacific, for example, made him the founding resident of its digital-residency program.

Due to bitcoin’s ability to act as an inflation hedge, the billionaire has long been optimistic about it. By mid-2023, he expected BTC to reach $250K, according to his November 2018 prediction.

The risks associated with investing in cryptocurrencies have been highlighted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on numerous occasions. Virtual currencies “are considered as unregulated financial instruments and have no regulatory oversight or safeguards relating to their usage in Sri Lanka,” the central bank stated in a notice it published in July of last year.  According to the authority, “no entity or company has been granted any license or authorization to operate schemes involving virtual currencies, including cryptocurrencies.”