El Salvador's President Nayib Buquele has said that 2.1 million people in the country are "actively using" the Chivo cryptocurrency wallet.
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!
According to the Worldometer, El Salvador has a population of around 6.5 million in 2021. About a third of them use Chivo, according to Buquelet's statement.
"Less than three weeks later [after bitcoin was legalised in the country] Chivo already has more users than any Salvadoran bank," the president wrote.
Buquelet conceded that the cryptocurrency wallet would surpass all the country's banks combined in terms of audience.
In June, Salvadoran authorities promised to give away $30 each in bitcoin to residents. Journalist Aaron van Wyrdum suggested that Chivo's "active use" was only due to receiving this money.
(Using the wallet just to get the free $30 out counts as "actively using" here, I assume?)
As a reminder, a law recognising bitcoin as a legal tender came into force in El Salvador on 7 September. At the time, the authorities bought 550 BTC into a government fund to ensure the exchange of the first cryptocurrency and dollars. On September 20, El Salvador bought an additional 150 BTC.
In July, a poll showed that only 20% of citizens approved of the president's initiative to recognise bitcoin as a legal tender. According to another survey in September, 70% of respondents opposed digital gold.
In August, Salvadorans rallied against bitcoin legalisation. Demonstrators expressed concern about the potential rise in corruption involving cryptocurrencies and demanded that the obligation to accept the digital asset as payment be removed.
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