President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, said Thursday the nation will buy one unit of the currency every day, doubling down amid public criticism of its adoption of the cryptocurrency.

“We’re buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow,” the president tweeted.

Bitcoin was trading at about $16,500 per unit on Thursday, compared to $45,000 in September 2021 when El Salvador launched the cryptocurrency and about $68,000 two months later – the highest historical level.

Bukele’s idea was to give more Salvadorans access to banking services and encourage crypto money transfers from around three million expats, mostly in the United States, to relatives back home.

Remittances account for more than a quarter of El Salvador’s gross domestic product.

But according to data from the Central Bank of Salvador, a year after bitcoin’s launch, “less than two percent” of transfers were made using the cryptocurrency.

The measure was questioned by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, among other things because of the notorious volatility of the currency.

Bukele took advantage of falling prices and in July bought 80 bitcoin with public funds for $19,000 each, bringing the Central American country’s total reserves to 2,381 units.

But an opinion poll last month found that more than three-quarters of Salvadorans thought Bukele’s launch of the coin was a “failure,” and less than a quarter used it.

The study, conducted by the University of Central America, found that nearly 80 percent of Salvadorans believe their president “should not continue to spend public money to buy bitcoin.”

On Wednesday, El Salvador’s Ambassador to Washington Milena Mayorga, a bitcoin promoter, told state-run Canal 10 television that using it “is a process, first we have to learn about it, education is key.”