Crypto Usage Explodes In El Salvador, Eclipsing All Local Banks

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Some three weeks after Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador, one of the poorest countries in Middle America, and the government provided a crypto wallet to all citizens, the usage of the digital currency has exploded.

According to President Nayib Bukele, the populist politician who enjoys an above 80% popularity rate in the poor country, about a third of all El Salvadorians are now actively using the Chivo crypto wallet his government provided.

32% of El Salvador’s population has been onboarded to the Lightning Network in less than 3 weeks.

That’s 2,100,000 new Chivo users, growing at over 100,000 new users per day.

Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/ivykQOfZjY

— Kevin Rooke (@kerooke) September 25, 2021

Not everyone agrees though. Reports in The Guardian and this week speak of protests against the introduction of Bitcoin and how some angry mobs have put fire to a crypto ATM.

Remittances

Others claim that the fact that the crypto wallet allows them to send remittances to their families back home in El Salvador will certainly help one of the poorest countries in the region.

Even The Guardian, in its highly critical piece on Friday, had to admit that Bitcoin was:

Lowering transaction costs for small cross-border payments such as migrants’ remittances. The latter are particularly important to El Salvador, having averaged about 20% of GDP annually over the past two decades.

The truth is probably somewhere in between but this didn’t stop President Bukele from touting his success. Speaking to his millions of followers on Twitter, he proudly stated:

2.1 million Salvadorans are ACTIVELY USING @chivowallet (not downloads). Chivo is not a bank, but in less than 3 weeks, it now has more users than any bank in El Salvador and is moving fast to have more users that ALL BANKS IN EL SALVADOR combined. This is wild!

2.1 million Salvadorans are ACTIVELY USING @chivowallet (not downloads).

Chivo is not a bank, but in less than 3 weeks, it now has more users than any bank in El Salvador and is moving fast to have more users that ALL BANKS IN EL SALVADOR combined.

This is wild🇸🇻

— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) September 25, 2021

Bukele, who calls himself the coolest dictator in the world on Twitter, has something in common with other populist figures. For some strange reason populist presidents always feel the need to type their Twitter messages partly in all caps. Former US President Donald Trump, now banned from social media, must be looking at this with jealousy.