El Salvador Abandons Bitcoin for Stablecoin Remittances
El Salvador is backing an app called Sivar that allows citizens to send and hold digital dollars, but it uses stablecoins instead of Bitcoin (BTC). This move comes five years after President Nayib Bukele made El Salvador the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender.
The Sivar app, built by Modveon, uses Coinbase's infrastructure and Base blockchain network for its payments. The app charges US users a flat $2 per transfer home, making it cheaper than traditional banks in some cases. However, the costs can still reach 9%, according to a Bank of Italy study.
El Salvador received nearly $10 billion in remittances in 2025, with about 92% coming from the US. The country's shift towards stablecoins may be due to the fact that only about 1.75% of remittances moved through crypto wallets last year. Bitcoin never became everyday money in El Salvador, with around 92% of Salvadorans saying they had not used it in 2024.
The CEO of Modveon, Nana Murugesan, said that while the national treasury still uses Bitcoin as a store of value, President Bukele is committed to using stablecoins for money movement due to their faster and cheaper nature.