El Salvador has launched Sivar, a national digital platform that unifies verified identity, civic services and payments. The app was developed by Modveon, with Coinbase supplying the payments infrastructure. Transactions settle in stablecoins on Base, Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2 network, and the company confirmed the partnership on Sept. 29 in its official blog.

The platform is aimed at El Salvador's large remittance market, which serves as a pillar of household income for the country. Salvadorans abroad sent roughly $9 billion home in 2025, with about 92% of that total coming from the United States. Sivar allows eligible U.S. users to send money to verified recipients in El Salvador for a flat $2 fee. The flat structure is notable because traditional money-transfer fees are typically charged as a percentage of the amount sent, which weighs most heavily on the small, frequent transfers families depend on.

How the digital dollar system works

Sivar relies on Coinbase's payments infrastructure throughout the transfer process. Users can fund transfers with a debit card, and the app provisions a non-custodial wallet for each user, meaning users retain control of their own keys rather than entrusting funds to an intermediary. Peer-to-peer transfers run through Coinbase APIs, with stablecoins settling on Base. Base is one of several Ethereum Layer 2 networks built to process transactions off the main Ethereum chain at lower cost, a design suited to the small, high-volume payments that define remittances. Recipients can cash out at more than 1,000 locations across El Salvador, according to Coinbase.

Identity verification is tied to government systems. Sivar says Salvadoran users can verify their identity through the country's official login system and national population registry. That linkage sets the app apart from typical crypto wallets, which generally require no government-verified credentials to use.

A new chapter for El Salvador's crypto strategy

The rollout comes five years after El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. Sivar instead anchors its payment rails in dollar-denominated stablecoins, reducing users' exposure to Bitcoin's price volatility during remittance transfers. The dollar-denominated design also fits El Salvador's existing monetary setup, as the country has used the U.S. dollar as its official currency since 2001. Coinbase said more than 25,000 Salvadorans signed up for Sivar before launch, and described the project as the first national deployment of Modveon's Verified Operating System.

The distinction between Bitcoin and stablecoins is significant: El Salvador can continue holding Bitcoin as a digital asset while relying on stablecoins for everyday cross-border payments. Sivar therefore represents a shift in the country's payment infrastructure rather than a replacement of its broader digital-asset strategy. That direction also follows the December 2024 financing agreement between El Salvador and the International Monetary Fund, under which the country scaled back several state-backed Bitcoin measures. For now, the app serves the U.S.–El Salvador corridor, and its early indicators — pre-launch sign-ups and the reach of the cash-out network — will show whether a stablecoin-based national payment layer can scale in practice.