Figures from the central bank of El Salvador show a 45% decrease in cryptocurrency remittances sent to El Salvador compared to the first four months of 2024.
Crypto transfers continue to fail to reach widespread adoption in El Salvador
Central bank figures have found that Crypto is struggling to break into El Salvador's current remittance structure, even though there are the benefits it may offer.
Remittances processed by Crypto Means fell 44.5% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to those sent to the country in the first four months of 2024. The Salvadorans received only $16 million in crypto during this period.
Cryptocurrency reductions in cryptocurrency transfer volumes have become a trend, and cannot gain momentum as financial institutions, incumbents in business have Salvadoranian preferences despite fees associated with their activities.
In this first quarter, Crypto was not even able to reach 1% of the total influx received by Salvadorans. It only made up of 0.52% of the $3 billion sent to the country between January and April.
Analysts and local news outlets argue that recent abandonment of Bitcoin with fiat currency and the recent “confinement” of Bitcoin from the public sector may have affected these outcomes. Salvadorans may understand that crypto and Bitcoin are evacuated from the country, so fewer people will be incentivized to utilize these alternatives rather than the tried and true methods proposed by incumbents.
Additionally, the placed dissolution of Chivo wallets, a state-promoted wallet that can be used for remittances, could have affected these figures because there are fewer government-sanctioned rails for citizens to complete these transactions.
President Bukere is one of the promoters of crypto-remitt use cases and says it will help Salvadorans take over the $400 million they pay with daily remittance fees. Nevertheless, this did not happen, and its utilization has been declining since its all-time high in October 2021, when crypto accounted for 5% of all remittance inflows.
Read more: Crypto transfers can't gain momentum in El Salvador
