President of El Salvador: A third of Salvadorans are 'actively' using Chivo wallets

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said that 2.1 million citizens of the country are using the government-backed Chivo cryptocurrency wallet, showing that the country's bitcoin strategy has paid off.

In an update to his 2.9 million Twitter followers on Saturday afternoon, the controversial president claimed that Chivo "now has more users than any other bank in El Salvador" after only three weeks of operation. Bukele said it was only a matter of time before Chivo’s adoption rate surpassed that of all El Salvador’s banks combined.

2.1 million Salvadorans are actively using Chivo Wallet (not downloading).

Chivo is not a bank, but in less than 3 weeks it has more users than any other bank in El Salvador and is growing rapidly to surpass the total number of users of all banks in El Salvador.

too crazy! #Bitcoin

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 25, 2021

The El Salvador government-issued Chivo wallet was launched in early September as El Salvador officially recognized bitcoin as legal tender — a landmark move that could provide an important case study for other countries in the region. Chivo enables individuals and businesses to send and receive Bitcoin or USD payments anywhere in the world. The wallet is available for both Android and Apple devices. As Cointelegraph reported, Mexican cryptocurrency exchange Bitso has signed on as a core service provider for Chivo.

The latest information released by Bukele shows that Bitcoin laws are being well received across the country despite hundreds of anti-government protesters voicing their opposition. These protests culminated in the burning of an encrypted kiosk (Bitcoin ATM) in the country’s capital on Sept. 15.

To be sure, Chivo’s mass adoption is partly due to the government airdropping $30 worth of BTC to every Salvadoran account holder. According to a recent survey by São Paulo agency Sherlock Communications, slightly more than half of Salvadorans are unfamiliar with Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, the Bukele government has been filling state coffers with BTC following a series of volatility in the price of Bitcoin. El Salvador “buy the dip” in at least two of the most recent bitcoin dips — Sept. 7 and 20 — bringing its total holdings to 700 BTC.

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