Home › Funds missing from El Salvador’s state-backed Bitcoin wallet say, users

Funds missing from El Salvador’s state-backed Bitcoin wallet say, users

December 27, 2021 By Harshini Nag

Citizens are appealing to the President to provide better service for users of the Chivo wallet

Citizens of El Salvador have taken to social media to testify that some of the funds deposited in El Salvador’s state-issued Bitcoin wallet is missing, CoinTelegraph reported today. The central American country became the first nation in the world to recognise Bitcoin as a legal tender earlier this year.

According to a Twitter thread started by “the commissioner”, at least 50 people have said that money from their Chivo wallets is missing. The original tweet, which was posted on December 19, has over 300 comments.

The information provided by the tweets reveals that over $96,000 has gone missing since the government set up the wallet. While some users have lost as little as $61, others have found themselves missing thousands of dollars.  

“The government does not admit mistakes and is silent. But this is one of the things that people demand an answer to. Some have been waiting for months to get their money back,” the user who started the thread documenting the missing amount said.  

Concerns regarding the Chivo wallet first arose in October after reports of scammers using citizens’ personal data to install the app and steal the $30 bonus in Bitcoins emerged. 

Another user, Luis Guardado directly appealed to President Nayib Bukele regarding the money: 

“There is a security flow on the wallet where money and transactions disappeared No tech support and only useless calls, where is my money.”

In October, the President had revealed that over 3 million of the 6.5 million Salvadorans are using the Chivo wallet.

Since the cryptocurrency became legal tender in June, the government has been using a variety of measures to promote the use of Bitcoin from incentives to social media campaigns. The President has also made it easier for the masses to adopt crypto by announcing the “Bitcoin City” project.