El Salvador is taking another approach to blockchain payments with Sivar, a new platform built by Modveon that lets users send stablecoin-powered remittances from the United States for a flat $2 fee. The system uses Coinbase infrastructure and settles transactions on Base while keeping most of the underlying crypto technology invisible to everyday users.
Modveon has launched Sivar, a digital platform combining identity verification, community features and blockchain-based payments for Salvadorans.
Modveon says Sivar is its first national deployment and operates under a five-year agreement with El Salvador’s Agencia Administradora de Fondos Bitcoin, or AAB, which manages the country’s Bitcoin funds.
The agreement went into effect in September, with Modveon responsible for developing and operating the platform.
Sivar’s payments are powered by Coinbase infrastructure, with stablecoin transactions settling on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network.
Remittances are one of Sivar’s biggest features.
Eligible users in the United States can send money to verified recipients in El Salvador for a flat $2 fee regardless of the amount transferred.
The payment infrastructure includes:
The approach means users don’t necessarily need to understand wallets, gas fees or blockchain transactions to use the service.
Remittances represent a major part of El Salvador’s economy.
Approximately $9 billion was sent to El Salvador during the previous year, with roughly 92% coming from the United States.
Despite Bitcoin being promoted partly as a way to reduce remittance costs when El Salvador adopted it as legal tender in 2021, crypto wallets have captured only a small portion of those transfers.
During the first seven months of 2026, approximately $41.1 million of $5.92 billion in family remittances arrived through crypto wallets, representing roughly 0.69% of the total, according to figures cited from El Salvador’s central bank.
The choice of stablecoins represents a significant change from El Salvador’s original Bitcoin payment strategy.
Bitcoin can fluctuate substantially in value between the time money is sent and when it is spent or converted.
Dollar-backed stablecoins are designed to remain near $1, potentially making them more practical for everyday payments where users want to transfer dollar value without taking on Bitcoin’s price volatility.
Sivar essentially separates the two use cases.
Bitcoin can remain a treasury or reserve asset, while stablecoins serve as the payment rail for moving dollars.
Modveon is also positioning Sivar as a broader digital platform rather than simply another remittance application.
Salvadoran users verify their identity through a government-controlled process using their national DUI identification. Modveon’s privacy disclosures say the underlying government ID and biometric verification remain within the government’s process, while Modveon receives verification results and related security information.
Verified users can then:
Modveon says more than 25,000 Salvadorans used Sivar during its phased rollout.
The current remittance functionality could eventually expand considerably.
Modveon plans to introduce additional services including bill payments, merchant payments and payments between citizens and government entities, subject to regulatory and partner availability.
That could turn Sivar into a broader digital financial platform where blockchain settlement operates underneath conventional-looking payment and government services.
Coinbase’s connection to the project extends beyond providing blockchain infrastructure.
Coinbase Ventures is among the investors in Modveon, which has raised $10 million.
Other investors include AAB, Humla Ventures, Strategic Cyber Ventures and Firebolt Ventures.
That gives Coinbase exposure to the project through both its investment arm and the infrastructure powering Sivar’s payments.
Sivar demonstrates a different approach from El Salvador’s original Chivo Wallet experiment.
Instead of asking consumers to actively adopt Bitcoin as money, Sivar uses blockchain infrastructure behind a familiar dollar-based experience.
The user sends dollars. Stablecoins move the value across Base. The recipient can then withdraw cash locally.
That model could ultimately prove more important for mainstream blockchain adoption because consumers don’t necessarily need to know they’re interacting with blockchain technology at all.
El Salvador hasn’t abandoned Bitcoin as part of its broader digital-asset strategy, but Sivar shows the country experimenting with a different division of labor — Bitcoin as a strategic asset and stablecoins as infrastructure for everyday money movement.
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