Source: AdobeStock / Milosz Maslanka
Less than 2% of transfers to El Salvador use the state-run Chivo bitcoin (BTC) app and wallet — and bitcoin ATMs in the country are “empty” less than a year after their launch, according to a new report. However, the government claims that the app is still popular among many citizens.
El Diario de Hoy, one of El Salvador’s leading newspapers, reported that “few Salvadorans use the Chivo app and ATMs to receive transfers.”
The media outlet is generally opposed to President Nayib Bukele’s government and his plans to adopt Bitcoin. It cited data from the central bank showing that between September 2021 and June 2022, USD 120.46 million entered the country via crypto wallets. That’s just 1.8% of the total $6.4 billion in remittances sent to the country during the same period – mostly from Salvadorans living abroad.
The figures also show that $29.68 million in BTC was transferred through the crypto wallets in October 2021 – a month after Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador. Since then, however, senders have not transferred more than $20 million per month. In a few months, that number dropped to around $10 million.
But while the media seemed to be painting a picture of a rapid decline in BTC transfers, one month’s worth of data stood out: in May of this year, $15.6 million worth of BTC was transferred to El Salvador from overseas, a big increase represents the previous month. The media outlet noted that in general, remittances are often higher than usual in May, the month in which Mother’s Day falls.
However, optimists may claim that this still suggests that a small but significant minority of people are choosing BTC as a remittance tool just ten months after the launch of Chivo and the BTC Adoption Act.
The data was shared with news agency EFE, which says the central bank refused to tell it whether the numbers represent BTC sent only via Chivo or whether they also included data from other BTC wallets.
Such information, according to the agency, is “secret.”
El Diario de Hoy, meanwhile, claimed that “in the center” of the capital, San Salvador, most Chivo ATMs “look empty, and “few Salvadorans” come to ask staff how to use machines.
Others seem reluctant to make “transactions” with the app, the media outlet added.
The same newspaper claimed that several companies in downtown San Salvador have removed the “Bitcoin Accepted” signs they put up just a few months ago.
But those itching to write obituaries on Salvadorian BTC might get a little too trigger-happy.
Last week, social media was flooded with news of Chivo stalls being “taken down” after images and video footage of workers seemingly dismantling a stall in San Salvador circulated online.
However, this turned out to be a false alarm: the cabin was only removed a few meters and is now apparently fully functional again.
Regardless, there are signs that the app hasn’t had the success the government initially hoped for. The technical team responsible for the app changed earlier this year, and its social media accounts are largely dormant.
Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya has responded by claiming that Salvadorans are “continuing to use” both Bitcoin and the Chivo wallet.
Zelaya also denied that any Chivo stands would be dismantled, but claimed that “many steps remain to be taken” in El Salvador’s BTC adoption journey.
In April the American National Office for Economic Research published a survey showing that 20% of Salvadorans continue to use the Chivo wallet.
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