On September 7, 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the US dollar. President Nayib Bukele pushed the legislation through congress in June 2021 with minimal debate, and the country launched the Chivo wallet — a government-backed Bitcoin wallet that gave every citizen $30 in BTC to start using it. The move made global headlines and positioned El Salvador at the center of the Bitcoin narrative.
The implementation was rocky. The Chivo wallet had technical problems at launch. Most Salvadoran merchants who were required to accept Bitcoin preferred to immediately convert to dollars. Surveys showed that the majority of Salvadorans were skeptical of Bitcoin and didn’t use it regularly after the initial $30 bonus was spent. The Lightning Network integration, while technically impressive, didn’t achieve the daily-use penetration that Bukele had promised.
Bukele’s Bitcoin purchases became a national financial strategy. The government bought over 5,000 BTC at various prices, with early purchases made near the market top in 2021-2022. When Bitcoin dropped 70%, the unrealized losses drew criticism from the IMF and international financial institutions. Bukele responded by buying more. When Bitcoin recovered and surged past $100,000 in late 2024, the government’s holdings were worth over $500 million — and Bukele’s strategy looked considerably less reckless than it had two years earlier.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment matters regardless of its financial outcome. It demonstrated that a sovereign nation could adopt crypto as legal tender. It forced the IMF, World Bank, and international financial institutions to engage with Bitcoin as a policy question rather than dismissing it. And it inspired other countries — particularly in Latin America and Africa — to consider their own crypto-friendly policies. Whether Bitcoin improves life for ordinary Salvadorans remains debatable. That Bukele changed the global conversation about Bitcoin and sovereignty is not.
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