Summary
CoinMarketCap analysis of El Salvador’s Chivo Wallet adoption data as of May 2022. More than 60% of the population downloaded the Chivo wallet (70% of the unbanked were onboarded), but only 40% of users continued using it after spending their $30 bonus. NBER research finds few Salvadorans use Chivo for remittances or tax payments despite high awareness.
Key Points
- 60%+ of population downloaded Chivo Wallet.
- 70% of unbanked Salvadorans were onboarded.
- Only 40% of users continued using Chivo after spending the $30 bonus.
- Most people who downloaded the app used it only to claim the bonus, not for ongoing transactions.
- NBER report: two-thirds of Salvadorans know about Chivo, but few use it for remittances or tax payments.
- El Salvador became the most prolific country for Bitcoin Lightning Network usage, exceeding Brazil and Nigeria combined.
- Chivo as Lightning-enabled wallet drove Lightning Network capacity growth.
Newsletter Angles
- The 40% retention figure vs. 60% download rate is the classic “incentive-to-habit” gap: the $30 was enough to download, not enough to build a new financial behavior.
- Lightning Network adoption as a silver lining: El Salvador’s failure as a currency experiment produced genuine Bitcoin infrastructure development (Lightning capacity).
- The unbanked onboarding stat (70%) actually makes the failure more damning — even the target population didn’t stay.
Entities Mentioned
- El Salvador — country running the Chivo experiment
- Nayib Bukele — government that launched Chivo with the $30 incentive
Concepts Mentioned
- El Salvador Bitcoin Experiment — this data is core evidence of adoption failure
- Tokenomics — the $30 signup bonus as a failed token incentive mechanic
Notes
CoinMarketCap article; draws on NBER research (by Fernando Alvarez and others). The Lightning Network adoption is an interesting secondary finding — El Salvador as an unwitting benefactor of Bitcoin’s scaling infrastructure development.