AP Photo/Salvador Melendez
- El Salvador has installed its Chivo bitcoin ATMs throughout the US.
- El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said on Twitter that Los Angeles and Chicago are among the locations where 50 ATMs are operating.
- The aim is to make remittances to El Salvador cheaper and easier.
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El Salvador has installed its Chivo bitcoin ATMs in cities across the US to make it cheaper and easier for people to send money to their family and friends who live in the world's first country to make bitcoin legal tender.
There are 50 commission-free Chivo ATMs in 10 cities in the US, locations where local legislation permits the machines, said El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said on tweets posted this week.
El Salvador earlier this month rolled out bitcoin as legal tender and along with its national crypto wallet called Chivo. More than 2.3 million Hispanic people of Salvadoran origin, including US citizens, were living in the US as of 2017, according to figures cited by The Block. The report also noted that remittances from the U.S. in 2018 made up 21% of El Salvador's GDP and that Bukele has estimated Salvadorans spend $400 million a year on remittance fees.
Chivo members can make withdrawals and recharge accounts at the ATMs and can use the wallet app to send either bitcoin or US dollars to people in El Salvador. People have usually used services such as Western Union to send money digitally from abroad for cash to be picked up.
Locations for Chivo ATMs include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles, Bukele said in a tweet.