El Salvador targets $9 billion remittance corridor with stablecoins

Sivar, a new community and payments app developed by Modveon, will use Coinbase infrastructure to settle stablecoin transfers on Base, according to a Sept. 29 announcement. Coinbase said about $9 billion in remittances flowed into El Salvador in 2025. Coinbase said roughly 92% of those remittances came from the US. An estimated 1.6 million Salvadorans depend on the payments. Users in the US can fund transfers with debit cards. Recipients in El Salvador can receive funds through wallets embedded in Sivar. Transfers between verified users will settle in stablecoins on Base. Sivar will charge a flat $2 per transfer regardless of size. Recipients can convert their balances to cash at more than 1,000 locations across El Salvador. Coinbase said more than 25,000 Salvadorans had signed up before launch. MoneyGram expanded its USDC-based stablecoin balance service into El Salvador in April. Tether relocated its headquarters to El Salvador in 2025 after securing authorization as a stablecoin issuer and digital-asset service provider. El Salvador continues to promote Bitcoin. Government data cited by the country's Bitcoin Office puts its holdings at about 7,789 BTC. The IMF said El Salvador has used no public resources to accumulate Bitcoin since its first program review. The government documented subsequent increases as private donations. Under El Salvador's $1.4 billion IMF program, legal changes made private-sector Bitcoin acceptance voluntary and required taxes to be paid in US dollars. The state also agreed to wind down its participation in the Chivo wallet and has since transferred majority ownership and operations to a private operator.