El Salvador’s experiment with Bitcoin is entering a new chapter. Lawmakers have approved measures that will let only the country’s largest financial institutions – those with a capital base of $50 million or more – seek licenses to operate as investment banks offering Bitcoin- and crypto-linked services to wealthy clients.
The reform doesn’t create a brand-new licensing system. Instead, it plugs into rules already on the books for Bitcoin service providers, digital asset issuers, and other registered crypto businesses. This means investment banks can now layer these permissions onto their existing operations, giving them the green light to hold BTC, create tokenized assets, and structure deals for clients with at least $250,000 in liquid assets.
According to representative Dania González, the goal is to expand the country’s financial infrastructure with new players that remain fully regulated and supervised – operating alongside, rather than outside, the traditional banking sector. The Ministry of Economy supported the legislation.
When El Salvador first declared Bitcoin legal tender in 2021, the emphasis was on everyday use – from shopkeepers to street vendors. But the mass adoption officials hoped for never materialized. Surveys indicate only one in five citizens uses cryptocurrency at all, and just 1% of remittance flows involve digital assets.
That slow uptake, combined with the need to secure a $1.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, prompted the government to scale back its retail Bitcoin initiatives earlier this year. The IMF agreement also came with a review of the country’s Bitcoin holdings.
Bukele’s administration still promotes the idea of purchasing one bitcoin per day. However, IMF records and statements from the central bank suggest that recent “purchases” have simply been transfers from scattered government wallets into a single reserve account, rather than fresh acquisitions from the market.
By shifting the emphasis to investment-grade crypto services, El Salvador is betting that well-capitalized banks catering to wealthy investors could succeed where retail adoption stalled. The new framework could turn the country into a regulated gateway for institutional Bitcoin and tokenized asset activity – while leaving mass-market adoption for another day.
