El Salvador’s Central Reserve Bank said that only 1.1% of remittances sent back to the country from January to August 2024 involved cryptocurrencies, equivalent to $57.4 million of a total of $5.46 billion.

Traditional remittance companies still dominate, accounting for 58.3% of the market share, while banks account for 37.9%. The average amount of each cryptocurrency remittance transaction is $260.

Although Bitcoin became a legal tender starting in 2021 and the government encourages its use, people still mainly use US dollars for transactions. Over the years, the trend of using cryptocurrencies for remittances has gradually declined, from $84.8 million in 2022 to $57.4 million in 2024.