El Salvador’s José Simeón Caas Central American University found in its yearly survey that 12% percent of the local populace utilized Bitcoin for payment for products and services at least once in 2023.
Participating in the survey, which commenced in December 2023, were in-home interviews with 1,280 respondents. A mere 20% of the respondents (20%) utilized Bitcoin for ten or more transactions, whereas 49.7% made purchases using the cryptocurrency at most once or thrice. Consumables (22.9%) and supermarkets (20.9%) comprised the majority of BTC expenses, followed by veterinary clinics (15%).
According to the survey, the proportion of Salvadorans utilizing Bitcoin has decreased. 24.4% of the population, according to research from the same university, purportedly purchased using BTC in 2022.
With Bitcoin becoming legal tender, the percentage of individuals who believe their family’s quality of life has improved over the past year has increased from 3% in 2022 to 6.8% in 2023.
Nevertheless, most participants (34.3%) believe that the nation’s economy experienced an improvement in 2023, with the decline in criminal activity being the primary factor (24.3%). A mere 0.5% of the Salvadoran population believes that Bitcoin contributes in any way to the development of the economy.
There are no inquiries regarding the Salvadoran government’s Bitcoin investments in the 45-page survey. In 2023, 77.1% of respondents desired an end to “government spending on Bitcoin with public funds.”
As of the time of writing, the “Nayib Bukele Portfolio Tracker,” an application that monitors the fluctuations in El Salvador’s Bitcoin reserves, indicates that the government’s BTC portfolio has generated an approximate aggregate profit of 0.57%.
