Monthly bitcoin transfers of under $1,000 – a proxy for money sent to the country from Salvadorans working abroad – totalled $1.7 million in May compared to $424,000 year earlier, U.S.
El Salvador is heavily reliant on remittances.
The sharp increase in bitcoin transfers mirrors trends across Central America, the data showed, one of the first glimpses of crypto use in El Salvador.
Chainalysis, which tracks crypto flows for financial firms and U.S.
In its latest report, the World Bank found that for the first three months of 2021, remittances to El Salvador jumped a third year-on-year.
Bitcoin, in theory, offers a quick and cheap way to send money across borders without relying on traditional and often costly remittance channels.
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