El Salvador Bitcoin wallet shows ‘strong sign of adoption,’ exec says

cointelegraph.com:

El Salvador’s government-backed Bitcoin (BTC) wallet has reached significant success in terms of adoption, according to an exec at the cryptocurrency exchange behind the wallet.

The Chivo wallet was launched in conjunction with BTC becoming legal tender in El Salvador on Sept. 7, 2021. The official platform allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin, offering cryptocurrency custody and exchange services provided by the Mexican crypto trading platform Bitso.

Bitso essentially provides back-end technology so that the government of El Salvador can purchase Bitcoin and ensure that BTC is convertible to the United States dollar, Bitso’s chief corporate and regulatory affairs officer Felipe Vallejo told Cointelegraph on Friday.

“Ever since it began working with the government in September, Bitso has continued to provide liquidity to the Chivo wallet,” Vallejo said. He added that Bitso started to operate in El Salvador through Chivo and is currently present in the country via that platform only. However, the exchange is active in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.

According to Vallejo, Chivo has achieved great success in the seven months after its somewhat bumpy rollout, when the wallet faced technical issues and even went offline.

“Through our work with the Chivo Wallet we’ve been able to see how a significant part of the population has turned to using the application for safe and easy transactions,” Vallejo stated. He referred to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which found that 40% of those who downloaded the Chivo wallet have continued using it after receiving their government incentives. He stated:

Vallejo said that 20% of all Salvadorans continued using the Chivo wallet after spending their free $30 bonus in