6 of 10 Salvadorans quit using the Chivo Wallet
"Most users who used Chivo after spending the $30 bonus do not engage with the app intensively", reports the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research.
Only four out of ten Salvadorans who downloaded the state-run bitcoin wallet Chivo said they still use it after obtaining the $30 Bitcoin bonus. The Bitcoin bonus was an incentive by President Nayib Bukele's government. This data comes from a report published by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research.
"Most users who used Chivo after spending the $30 bonus do not engage with the app intensively", said the study. The data is based on face-to-face surveys with adults in 1,800 households across El Salvador made in February.
"The median user reports no ATM withdrawals, and no payments sent or received in Bitcoin in a given month", the report elaborates. Furthermore it adds that although "most citizens of El Salvador have a cell phone with internet, less than 60% of them downloaded the Chivo Wallet."
The report states, "Chivo is not being widely used to receive remittances from abroad". Those statements align with recent reports from the Salvadoran Central Bank, according to which 1.6% of remittances were received by digital wallets in February.
"In the first quarter of 2022, we find almost no new adopters and the share of remittances in Bitcoin is at its lowest point since Chivo Wallet's launch."
Adding to that, 5% of Salvadorans paid taxes using Bitcoin, while 20% of firms accept Bitcoin and 11.4% said they had positives sales using the cryptocurrency, the report concluded.
