Almost a third of Salvadorans are actively using the Chivo bitcoin wallet less than a month after the country allowed the cryptocurrency as legal tender, President Nayib Bukele said.
- Some 2.1 million people are using the wallet, Bukele said in a tweet. That’s more users than any bank in the country, he said. El Salvador has a population of about 6.5 million people, according the CIA World Factbook.
2.1 million Salvadorans are ACTIVELY USING @chivowallet (not downloads).
Chivo is not a bank, but in less than 3 weeks, it now has more users than any bank in El Salvador and is moving fast to have more users that ALL BANKS IN EL SALVADOR combined.
This is wild!#Bitcoin🇸🇻
— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) September 25, 2021
- El Salvador started using bitcoin as legal tender on Sept. 7, three months after the country’s legislature passed the Bitcoin Law. It runs in parallel with the U.S. dollar, which has been the currency since 2001.
- El Salvador is using cryptocurrency wallet company BitGo to provide Chivo’s underlying technology.
- Demonstrators against the rollout in the capital San Salvador Sept. 16 set fire to a Chivo ATM, designed to exchange dollars for bitcoin.
See also: Why El Salvador Is Botching Its Bitcoin Experiment
