Numbers from the Central Bank of El Salvador indicate that crypto remittances sent to El Salvador fell by 45% compared to the first four months of 2024. Crypto flows sent from abroad accounted for less than 1% of all funds sent by foreigners to family and friends.
Crypto Remittances Keep Failing to Reach Widespread Adoption in El Salvador
Numbers from the central bank found out that, even with the advantages that it might offer, crypto has had a hard time breaking into the current remittance structure in El Salvador.
The volume of remittances processed through crypto means fell by 44.5% during Q1 2025 compared to what was sent to the country in the first four months of 2024. Salvadorans only received $16 million in crypto during this period, a sharp decline from the $28.83 million during the same period last year.
The reduction in crypto remittances volumes has become a trend, failing to gain momentum as financial institutions, incumbents in the business, still have the preference of the Salvadorans despite the fees associated with their activities.
During this first quarter, crypto failed to even reach 1% of the total inflows received by Salvadorans. It only comprised 0.52% of over $3 billion sent to the country between January and April.
Analysts and local press claim that the recent abandonment of bitcoin as legal tender and the recent “confinement” of bitcoin from the public sector might have influenced these results. Salvadorans might understand that crypto and bitcoin are being displaced from the country, so fewer people are incentivized to leverage these alternatives instead of the tried and true methods proposed by incumbents.
Also, the arranged dissolution of Chivo Wallet, a state-promoted wallet that could be used for remittances, might have influenced these numbers, as citizens have fewer government-sanctioned rails to complete these transactions.
President Bukele was one of the promoters of the remittance use case for crypto, stating that it would help retake the over $400 million that Salvadorans pay in remittance fees each day. Nonetheless, this has failed to happen, and its utilization has been trending down since its all-time high in October 2021, when crypto represented 5% of all remittance inflows.
Read more: Crypto Remittances Fail to Gain Momentum in El Salvador
