Cryptocurrencies in El Salvador: Remittances Fall 28% until July 2023

El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar in September 2021. The president of the Central American country, Nayib Bukele, expressed at that time that this measure would make the country grow economically and he proudly showed it to the international community: El Salvador was modernizing.

This measure is already two years old this September and this has been the balance.

2023: Remittances with cryptocurrency wallets fall

El Salvador registered a 28% drop in the receipt of remittances through cryptocurrency wallets between January and July 2023, compared to the same period in 2022, according to data from the Central Reserve Bank (BCR) consulted this Wednesday by EFE.

Official data indicates that between January and July of this year the Central American country received 53.14 million dollars (48.62 million euros).

These data represent a drop of more than 20 million dollars compared to the 73.87 million dollars registered in 2022.

In July alone, the state bank registered an income through cryptoactive digital wallets of 6.48 million dollars, while in the same month of 2022 the figure was 10.37 million, a year-on-year drop of 37.5% .

These incomes between January and July represented 1.12% of the total of the 4,710.96 million dollars in remittances that El Salvador has received, while in 2022 they were 1.65% of the 4,461.83 million.

Also read: Did Nayib Bukele put the Salvadoran economy in check before the fall of Bitcoin?

Background

El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar in September 2021.

A survey by the University Institute of Public Opinion of the Central American University indicates the "almost zero use" of bitcoin in El Salvador in 2022 and the persistence of "unfavorable opinions" among the population about the cryptoactive.