Coinbase is providing the payments infrastructure for Sivar, a new remittance and identity app built by Palo Alto-based Modveon for El Salvador, according to a Tuesday announcement by the U.S.-based exchange.

Sivar enables eligible senders in the United States to transfer funds to verified recipients in El Salvador for a flat $2 fee, regardless of the transaction amount. Coinbase and Modveon said more than 25,000 Salvadorans had signed up before the app’s launch.

How Sivar’s remittance system works

Sivar is designed to resemble a conventional payments app on the user-facing side, while Coinbase’s crypto infrastructure operates in the background. Peer-to-peer transfers move through Coinbase APIs, with the value settled in stablecoins on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network. The model combines digital settlement between the platforms with cash access for recipients who choose to collect funds in person.

According to Coinbase, the process works as follows:

• Senders fund transfers with a debit card through Coinbase Onramp.
• Each user receives a non-custodial wallet within the app.
• Recipients can collect cash at more than 1,000 locations across El Salvador.

Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad said the company can charge a flat fee rather than taking a percentage of each transfer because the money “moves entirely in digital dollars.”

Nana Murugesan, Modveon’s CEO and co-founder, described Sivar as the first national rollout of the company’s “Verified Operating System,” which combines identity, community features and payments.

Why Coinbase is expanding in El Salvador

A flat-fee service for people receiving money from abroad addresses a significant market in El Salvador. Coinbase said Salvadorans living in the United States accounted for about 92% of the roughly $9 billion sent by people abroad to recipients in the country in 2025.

Remittances were also a central consideration when President Nayib Bukele’s government made Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador in 2021. Bitcoin payments, however, did not achieve the intended adoption rate. Cryptopolitan reported in August that an employee at a restaurant in El Zonte, known as Bitcoin Beach, described the local Bitcoin payment environment as “dead.”

A shift toward stablecoin infrastructure

Sivar illustrates the shift in El Salvador’s crypto policy since its initial focus on Bitcoin. Under the country’s 40-month loan program with the International Monetary Fund, El Salvador amended its Bitcoin Law in January 2025 to make merchant acceptance voluntary and prohibit tax payments in Bitcoin.

The IMF’s combined second and third review, which reached the staff level in early September, said majority ownership and operational control of the state-run Chivo wallet had transferred to a private operator. Cryptopolitan reported that the arrangement unlocks about $140 million and that El Salvador’s public-sector Bitcoin holdings, near 7,764 BTC, have not increased through new purchases.

Adriana Mira, vice minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of El Salvador, called Sivar “a step toward a more personal digital experience designed to meet the needs of Salvadorans, wherever they may be.”

The launch came one day after Coinbase said it had expanded its partnership with Citi to provide businesses with fiat-and-stablecoin payment rails. The arrangement uses Citi’s Virtual Account Wallet and allows Citi’s institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments through Spring by Citi. In its Q4 2025 shareholder letter, Coinbase identified scaling stablecoins and payments infrastructure as one of its three priorities for 2026. Sivar extends that infrastructure to what Coinbase describes as country scale.