LatinNews Daily - 09 October 2026

*El Salvador’s government has awarded the US blockchain company Linguard Labs a majority stake in Chivo, the digital wallet launched by President Nayib Bukele’s administration in 2021 to support the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and US dollar transactions. According to a Linguard statement Chivo will be relaunched as “a complete financial platform” and will eliminate fees on remittances sent from the US to El Salvador. The statement said that the government will remain a shareholder in Chivo but did not specify the stake that it will hold. It said that “the new Chivo is being built in San Salvador, in partnership with some of the world’s largest financial services and crypto companies”, which were not named, and said that the goal is “to make Chivo the standard for financial inclusion in El Salvador and across Latin America”. On 1 October the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had described the transfer of Chivo to a private operator as a “welcome step” as it continued to voice concern about the government’s Bitcoin accumulation.

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