El Salvador shifts to stablecoins as 92% of citizens avoid bitcoin
El Salvador's government, working with startup Modveon, launched a stablecoin platform called Sivar on September 29, 2026, five years after adopting bitcoin as legal tender. As of 2024, around 92% of Salvadorans said they had not used bitcoin, according to a University of Central America survey.
Sivar will verify users using government-issued ID and then group them by home address, allowing them to send and hold stablecoins on Coinbase's Base network. Beyond transfers, the platform lets users post content, join live discussions and polls, and vote in local elections even while living abroad. El Salvador is Modveon's first client, and the startup said it will not expand to other markets until the model proves viable in the country. The IMF noted that only 1.75% of remittances currently move through crypto wallets, highlighting the limited use of bitcoin for payments. The platform aims to capture remittance flows by letting Salvadorans abroad send stablecoins instantly to family using the same ID-based verification.
Five years ago, El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Despite that, bitcoin never gained traction as a mainstream payment method, with surveys showing most citizens avoided it and only a tiny fraction of remittances moving through crypto wallets.
What we know
Five years ago, the government of El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender in the country.
As of 2024, around 92% of Salvadorans said they had not used bitcoin, the report added, citing a survey by the University of Central America.
The International Monetary Fund found that just 1.75% of remittances were transferred through crypto wallets.
El Salvador is Modveon’s first client, and the company said it has no plans to push into other markets until it has shown that the model can work in the Central American country.
The program comes five years after El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender.