El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bet Promised a Future That Never Came?

In El Salvador, the Bitcoin bet changed course before it could deliver the promised financial revolution. In 2025, a legal reform made it voluntary for businesses to accept Bitcoin and limited the public sector’s involvement.

In 2026, the government transferred majority ownership and operational control of Chivo Wallet, the digital wallet created to promote Bitcoin use, to a private operator. Bitcoin remains available in the country, but it no longer plays the role it had in the original plan.

That shift raises a central question: What did the policy accomplish for the public? Nayib Bukele’s government promoted Bitcoin as a way to facilitate payments, expand access to financial services, reduce remittance costs, and attract investment.

Yet the latest available survey on everyday use shows that most respondents did not use it to make payments in 2024. And although remittances sent through cryptocurrency wallets increased in the first months of 2026, they accounted for less than 1% of the total received by the country.

There is no 2026 survey measuring whether families’ views changed this year. The most recent data directly measuring Bitcoin use came from Iudop, published in January 2025 and covering the previous year. Those findings, alongside Central Reserve Bank remittance figures and International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports on recent financial and legal changes, help show which parts of the promise were fulfilled and which remained unfulfilled.