At 02:02 UTC on September 11, 2019, the X account @Bitcoinbeach posted its plan1. “Punta Mango El Salvador will be first community in the world where people can pay their electric bills and water bills with Bitcoin,” Bitcoin Beach wrote. The same post logged its first bitcoin transfers and classes.
On September 18, 2019, the account turned to El Zonte, a surf town on the same Pacific coast26. “What if I told you their was a place where local kids are paid in Bitcoin to keep the local river free of trash,” it wrote, and tagged @nayibbukele. Nayib Bukele was El Salvador's president8.
Mike Peterson is the co-founder tied to that account. Bitcoin Beach's site lists him beside the handle @Bitcoinbeach3. CoinDesk called him a Californian surfer who runs a food business in California6. Late on June 8, 2021, El Salvador's lawmakers passed a Bitcoin Law, 62 votes of 848.
The letter from 2019
A donor and a letter started the plan. In June 2022, Peterson wrote a prologue for Bitcoin Beach's white paper4. He recalled a meeting with the advisor of "an early Bitcoin adopter and philanthropist". That night he sent a proposal, and the white paper prints it as "the letter that started it all, from 2019".
The letter set big goals. Its target was Agua Fria, a remote village on the east coast4. “By year three, we believe that most of the transactions in Agua Fria will be happening in bitcoin and that most of the resources sent by relatives in the U.S. will be sent using bitcoin,” Peterson wrote.
Accounts of the first contact differ. In 2017, a charity asked Peterson what to do with a bitcoin donation, Bitcoin Magazine reported in January 20205. CoinDesk put the donor's interest in 20196. The donor's name stays private on every page The CryptoLately.com Desk opened. Bitcoin Beach's own site says only that "an anonymous early Bitcoin adopter" backs it3.
Both sides, in their own words
Did the beach model scale?
“I don't know how much that impacted things – obviously, it helped”
“They urged the authorities to narrow the scope of the Bitcoin law by removing Bitcoin’s legal tender status”
How the beach economy worked
What did the money do? Bitcoin Beach paid kids in bitcoin for community work and good grades, the white paper says4. In September 2019, that meant kids who cleaned the river2. Their spending brought shops on board.
Stores needed a way out, too. Peterson acted as a guaranteed buyer for shopkeepers who needed cash, Bitcoin Magazine reported5. Locals started on Wallet of Satoshi, a Lightning wallet. Lightning is a payment layer that moves small bitcoin sums off the main chain. Galoy later built the Bitcoin Beach Wallet with the team46.
Colin Harper of Bitcoin Magazine reported the aim in Peterson's words. “The goal is to get people to actually utilize it in a real way where it would be circulating, people would be learning how to use it and it would be consequential in their lives,” Peterson said5.
Before and after, by the numbers
Bitcoin Beach's own counts rose over four years. In January 2020, Peterson said Bitcoin Beach had onboarded about 100 new users, 50 of them students5. About $5,000 in bitcoin circulated at a time, in a village of about 1,000 people.
By the end of 2021, the white paper described one small town4. The paper said 90 percent of families had used bitcoin in the past six months. Half the families used it often, and half the businesses took it. CoinDesk counted over 3,000 users, 500 families and 120 businesses in April 20236.
From a beach to a law
Bitcoin Beach kept addressing the president after that first tag2. On December 20, 2019, the account asked Bukele to give an interview to Peter McCormack16.
The law came fast. Bukele proposed it the week before the vote, Al Jazeera reported8. On the night of the vote, Bukele said around 8 p.m. local time that he had sent the bill, and lawmakers passed it within hours, Decrypt reported7. “It will bring financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development for our country,” Bukele wrote in a tweet quoted by Al Jazeera. Bitcoin became legal tender on September 7, 202110.
What the coverage missed
CoinDesk's 2023 profile starts the beach in El Zonte6. Bitcoin Beach's first post named Punta Mango1. CoinDesk later called Punta Mango an expansion three hours east.
Peterson's own dates differ, too. His June 2022 prologue says the project launched 2.5 years earlier4. Yet the account logged paid work in September 201912.
Money sent home
Remittances are the test the 2019 letter set. A remittance is money a worker abroad sends to family at home. The Banco Central de Reserva, El Salvador's central bank, counts every one by channel11.
Crypto wallets moved $126.71 million in 2022, out of $7,819.58 million in total11. In 2025 they moved $57.65 million out of $9,987.91 million. The bank put the 2025 share at 0.58 percent. By the CryptoLately.com Desk's arithmetic, the 2022 share was 1.62 percent. From January to August 2026, crypto wallets carried 0.69 percent.
Crypto wallets carried $57.65 million of El Salvador's 2025 remittances, or 0.58 percent
Family remittances to El Salvador each year, in total and through crypto wallets, in $ millions
- All remittances
- Through crypto wallets
- Height: Remittances, $ millions
Read the chart as a table
| Item | All remittances | Through crypto wallets |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $7,819.58M | $126.71M |
| 2023 | $8,275.44M | $82.93M |
| 2024 | $8,479.70M | $85.50M |
| 2025 | $9,987.91M | $57.65M |
A national survey found the same pattern. Fernando Alvarez, David Argente and Diana Van Patten polled 1,800 households face to face10. Only 20 percent kept using the government's Chivo Wallet after spending its $30 bonus. “Conducting a representative face-to-face survey and relying on blockchain data to obtain all Chivo transactions, we document how usage of digital payments and bitcoin is low, concentrated, and has been decreasing over time,” the three economists wrote.
El Salvador's own coins
A public state wallet kept growing. El Salvador's National Bitcoin Office posts the addresses of its ONBTC wallet12. The CryptoLately.com Desk summed every transaction the wallet's API lists. By that arithmetic, the balance read 5,706.75 bitcoin at the end of March 2024. The same sum gives 6,003.77 at the end of December 2024. At the end of September 2026, the CryptoLately.com Desk's total was 7,791.37 bitcoin.
El Salvador's public wallet rose from 5,706.75 BTC in March 2024 to 7,791.37 in Sept. 2026
Month-end balance in BTC of the National Bitcoin Office wallet, summed by The CryptoLately.com Desk
- Dec. 2024 IMF staff deal; Nov. 2025, 1,090 BTC added
- Other months, March 2024 to September 2026
- Height: Wallet balance, bitcoin
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Mar 2024 | 5,706.75 BTC |
| Apr 2024 | 5,736.76 BTC |
| May 2024 | 5,767.76 BTC |
| Jun 2024 | 5,797.76 BTC |
| Jul 2024 | 5,828.76 BTC |
| Aug 2024 | 5,859.76 BTC |
| Sep 2024 | 5,889.76 BTC |
| Oct 2024 | 5,920.77 BTC |
| Nov 2024 | 5,950.77 BTC |
| Dec 2024 | 6,003.77 BTC |
| Jan 2025 | 6,052.18 BTC |
| Feb 2025 | 6,092.18 BTC |
| Mar 2025 | 6,133.18 BTC |
| Apr 2025 | 6,162.18 BTC |
| May 2025 | 6,194.18 BTC |
| Jun 2025 | 6,224.18 BTC |
| Jul 2025 | 6,255.18 BTC |
| Aug 2025 | 6,285.18 BTC |
| Sep 2025 | 6,336.18 BTC |
| Oct 2025 | 6,367.18 BTC |
| Nov 2025 | 7,487.37 BTC |
| Dec 2025 | 7,518.37 BTC |
| Jan 2026 | 7,549.37 BTC |
| Feb 2026 | 7,576.37 BTC |
| Mar 2026 | 7,607.37 BTC |
| Apr 2026 | 7,638.37 BTC |
| May 2026 | 7,669.37 BTC |
| Jun 2026 | 7,699.37 BTC |
| Jul 2026 | 7,730.37 BTC |
| Aug 2026 | 7,760.37 BTC |
| Sep 2026 | 7,791.37 BTC |
In November 2025, the CryptoLately.com Desk's monthly sums show the biggest jump12. The Bitcoin Office said it added 1,090 bitcoin on one evening, The Block reported on November 17, 202515. An IMF report, cited by The Block, tied such increases to "the consolidation of Bitcoin".
A case for the beach model
Peterson gives the government the credit for the law. "I don't know how much that impacted things – obviously, it helped," Mike Peterson told CoinDesk6. “But the government, they're the ones that had the courage to decide to do what's best for El Salvador and make that jump,” he said.
Local partners did the daily work. Roman Martinez and Jorge Valenzuela worked beside him in El Zonte6. Bitcoin Beach's white paper gives that Salvadoran team the credit4. El Salvador's government adopted the team's lifeguard program and rolled it out nationally, CoinDesk reported. CoinDesk wrote in 2023 that the model was being copied around the world.
The case against
Within months, the International Monetary Fund pushed the other way. Its board of directors met on January 24, 20229. “They urged the authorities to narrow the scope of the Bitcoin law by removing Bitcoin’s legal tender status,” the International Monetary Fund said.
In December 2024, El Salvador reached a deal with IMF staff for about $1.4 billion over 40 months13. “Legal reforms will make acceptance of Bitcoin by the private sector voluntary,” the IMF said. On January 30, 2025, The Block reported that Congress had passed that change, 55 votes to 2, citing Reuters14.
What to watch
Watch the central bank's next remittance workbook11. Each one shows whether crypto wallets climb back above the 1.62 percent of 2022. Then check the ONBTC balance against the IMF's next review1213.
Sources
- Bitcoin Beach, "Post by @Bitcoinbeach on its first bitcoin transfers and classes in Punta Mango," X, Sept. 11, 2019, https://x.com/Bitcoinbeach/status/1171604827803140096
- Bitcoin Beach, "Post by @Bitcoinbeach on local kids paid in bitcoin to clean the river," X, Sept. 18, 2019, https://x.com/Bitcoinbeach/status/1174328900375273478
- Bitcoin Beach, "BitcoinBeach.com - The First Bitcoin Circular Economy," Bitcoin Beach, read Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.bitcoinbeach.com/
- hunicus, with a prologue by Mike Peterson, "Basis Underlying Bitcoin Beach-Like Efforts (BUBBLEs)," Bitcoin Beach, July 2022, https://www.bitcoinbeach.com/en/whitepaper
- Colin Harper, "On the Coast of El Salvador, Bitcoin Is Becoming the Standard," Bitcoin Magazine, Jan. 13, 2020, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/on-the-coast-of-el-salvador-bitcoin-is-becoming-the-standard
- Frederick Munawa, "Bitcoin Beach's Pioneering Circular Economy Is Making a Global Impact," CoinDesk, April 17, 2023, https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/04/17/bitcoin-beach-circular-economy/
- Jose Antonio Lanz, "El Salvador Passes Law to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender," Decrypt, June 9, 2021, https://decrypt.co/73125/el-salvador-approves-bitcoin-law-btc-is-legal-tender
- Al Jazeera, "El Salvador approves Bitcoin as legal tender," Al Jazeera, June 9, 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/9/el-salvador-congress-approves-bitcoin-as-legal-tender
- International Monetary Fund, "IMF Executive Board Concludes 2021 Article IV Consultation with El Salvador," International Monetary Fund, Jan. 25, 2022, https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2022/01/25/pr2213-el-salvador-imf-executive-board-concludes-2021-article-iv-consultation
- Fernando E. Alvarez, David Argente and Diana Van Patten, "Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador (Working Paper 29968)," National Bureau of Economic Research, April 2022, revised February 2023, https://www.nber.org/papers/w29968
- Departamento del Sector Externo, "Informe estadístico de remesas familiares (workbooks for 2022 to 2026)," Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador, workbooks posted Jan. 27, 2025, Jan. 27, 2026 and Sept. 24, 2026, https://www.bcr.gob.sv/documental/Inicio/busqueda/08
- National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador, "ONBTC wallet: addresses and transactions (bitcoin.gob.sv wallet API)," National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador, read Oct. 13, 2026, https://bitcoin.gob.sv/api/v1/wallet/ONBTC
- International Monetary Fund, "IMF Reaches Staff-Level Agreement with El Salvador on an Extended Fund Facility Arrangement," International Monetary Fund, Dec. 18, 2024, https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2024/12/18/pr-24485-el-salvador-imf-reaches-staff-level-agreement-on-an-eff-arrangement
- Danny Park, "El Salvador passes bill to revise bitcoin adoption strategy per IMF deal: Reuters," The Block, Jan. 30, 2025, https://www.theblock.co/post/337885/el-salvador-passes-bill-to-revise-bitcoin-adoption-strategy-per-imf-deal-reuters
- Danny Park, "El Salvador discloses largest single-day BTC purchase of $100 million as bitcoin dips lower," The Block, Nov. 17, 2025, https://www.theblock.co/post/379176/el-salvador-100-million-bitcoin-purchase
- Bitcoin Beach, "Post by @Bitcoinbeach asking @nayibbukele to give @PeterMcCormack an interview," X, Dec. 20, 2019, https://x.com/Bitcoinbeach/status/1208170992779948033