Crypto
El Salvador Abandons Bitcoin for Stablecoins in Remittance Push
El Salvador is turning to stablecoins for remittances, marking an evolution from its pioneering Bitcoin experiment. The country's new national community and payments app, Sivar, will use Coinbase infrastructure to settle transfers in stablecoins on Base.
Sivar abstracts the crypto infrastructure from users, allowing people unfamiliar with digital assets to send and receive money without managing the underlying blockchain transaction themselves.
The rollout targets a $9 billion remittance corridor, where about 92% of the flows come from the US. An estimated 1.6 million Salvadorans depend on those payments, which can be expensive due to conventional remittance fees that eat into smaller payments.