Western Union Could Be In Trouble Due To El Salvador’s Recognition Of Bitcoin

Remittances are a huge part of El Salvador’s economy.

According to sources, remittances make up more than 20% of El Salvador’s GDP, and some estimates rank it as making up almost 1/4th of El Salvador’s GDP.

Since Bitcoin became a legal tender in the country, large corporations such as McDonald’s and Starbucks have begun to accept Bitcoin for transactions.

Western Union, Moneygram, and other similar services are set to lose out big from people moving to Bitcoin.

Western Union alone is reportedly set to lose an estimated $400 million over the move to BTC—a whopping number.

Here’s what people are saying:

If you want to send $10 from Canada -> El Salvador via Western Union's app = $3.24 fee

Muun->Chivo wallet = $0.10

Chivo->Chivo = free@nayibbukele's new #bitcoin wallet could cost co's like WU $400m/yhttps://t.co/eWy4dwt90P @JaimeWGarcia @gladstein @Matt_Hougan @marioglozada

— MacKenzie Sigalos (@KenzieSigalos) September 9, 2021

El Salvador’s new #Bitcoin wallet could cost Western Union $400 million a year – CNBC

Good!🖕

— Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) September 9, 2021

One man’s account of trying to use Western Union to send money back to El Salvador was reported by CNBC :

Jaime García really hates using Western Union to send money home to El Salvador.

“In this day and age, it is wild that I had to go to a physical Western Union office, give them actual cash, and then hand them another $25 on top of that, before they would send my money over,” García said.

“And then, of course, it takes three days for it to actually arrive in El Salvador.”

In 2020, El Salvador received nearly $6b in remittances (23% of its gross domestic product)

=> money services providers like Western Union & MoneyGram could lose $400m/y in commissions for remittances thanks to Bitcoin…

Get ready, Mafia bois going to fight back really hard… pic.twitter.com/WtrlNjuFhr

— Julien Bouteloup (@bneiluj) September 10, 2021

El Salvador received $6 billion in remittances in 2020.
The average monthly remittance is $195.
That's an average Western Union fee between 5.6% – 9.2% from those who need it the most and it is not even instant, come on!? get out!#Bitcoin is hope, see ya Western Union https://t.co/8u6MA9fasg pic.twitter.com/FsA2Antcxm

— pagameenbitcoin (@pagameenbitcoin) September 9, 2021

Bitcoinist points out:

It cannot be underestimated how important remittances are to the nation-state of El Salvador, which is why the remittance industry is booming in the country.

With an approximate 70% of its population receiving remittance payments from overseas, bitcoin payments will save citizens millions of dollars in commissions being paid to third-party remittance services.

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