EL Salvador’s BTC Wallet Records $52M In Remittances This Year

By Kevin • July 7, 2022 12:07 pm • Comments

The El Salvador Central Reserve Bank has so far reported $52 million in remittances using the country’s crypto wallet named Chivo.

The data was recorded from January to May of this year where many of the transactions were performed by El Salvadorans who are living abroad.

The BTC transfers were all commission-free which indicates that many people were making good use of this new crypto service and that it has gotten more popular compared to 2021.

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In comparison, at this specific point in the year in 2021, there has already been a $118 million increase in value this year which is a 3.9% increase compared to last year.

As long as the data continues to show growth, this may indicate continuing adoption despite the current bear markets.

CoinTelegraph reports:

Douglas Rodríguez, president of the El Salvador central bank, unpacked the general economic outlook for the country on the local television news program Frente a Frente on Wednesday.

A major takeaway was the $52 million of remittances processed by national digital wallet service Chivo through the first five months of the year. This marks a 3.9%, $118 million increase in value when compared to the same period in 2021.

Chivo was launched in September 2021 as the Central American country became the first in the world to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender.

The launch of the app reportedly attracted more than 2 million users in less than a month, leading to major teething problems for the state-endorsed payment platform.

The government-sanctioned payment service provider was relaunched in February this year, necessitated by the onboarding of an estimated 4 million users looking to make use of low fees for payments and transfers made in BTC.

One of the main benefits of the Chivo wallet is that all the transactions are commission free and it is projected that it will save the country roughly $400 million in annual commissions.

The wallet makes transactions purely with USD and BTC right now, but other additional digital assets may be included in the future.

Ever since the country of El Salvador made BTC legal tender and adoption has picked up within the country, blockchain data shows that the Lightning Network has had a 400% increase in payment volume in just the last year.

The country has also dedicated a significant amount of its treasury holdings to BTC making it one of the countries that are extremely confident on the future of crypto.

The country continues to hold its BTC assets despite the bear market which has taken a toll on the overall value of its portfolio.

Gadgets360.com reports:

American cryptocurrency exchange software firm AlphaPoint has been onboarded by Chivo for the scaling and stability of BTC to US dollar transactions.

El Salvador legalised trading and paying in world’s most-valued cryptocurrency Bitcoin in the backdrop of not having its own currency. In 2011, the central American country had adopted US dollars as their mode of payments.

While El Salvador aims to become an example of growth in legal crypto space, several other countries are against legalising trading and transacting in cryptocurrencies, because these digital assets are not yet regulated by any international bank.

It seems that the country is completely committed now and that this will either be a major success or a major failure with no in between.

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