Bitcoin Payments in El Salvador Fall to Just 8.1% of Purchases
A restaurant tucked into El Zonte, the coastal village known worldwide as Bitcoin Beach, reportedly took in just one Bitcoin payment during the entire month of August 2026. That single transaction, made by a customer buying lunch, has become the latest data point in a much larger story about fading Bitcoin payments in El Salvador, the first country to make the cryptocurrency legal tender back in 2021.
Key takeaways
- A restaurant in El Zonte reportedly recorded only one Bitcoin payment during August 2026, according to Bitcoin Core contributor Jon Atack.
- Atack said staff described Bitcoin payments as having become “practically non-existent” at the restaurant level.
- A Universidad Centroamericana survey found just 8.1% of Salvadorans used Bitcoin for purchases in 2024, down from 25.7% in 2021.
- El Salvador made private-sector Bitcoin acceptance voluntary after revising its Bitcoin Law under a $1.4 billion IMF agreement signed in February 2025.
- IMF documentation says the government’s overall Bitcoin holdings stayed unchanged even as onchain data showed movement between wallets.
Bitcoin Payments Decline in El Zonte’s Bitcoin Beach
The clearest recent snapshot of weakening Bitcoin payments in El Salvador comes from a single merchant account, not a nationwide audit. Jon Atack, a Bitcoin Core contributor who has lived in the country since 2022, reported on Aug. 23 that a restaurant in El Zonte received its first Bitcoin payment of the month when he paid for his own lunch with the asset.
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