The El Salvador Parliament approved a new law allowing investment banks with a minimum capital of $50 million to provide Bitcoin services to sophisticated investors.
El Salvador continues to strengthen its pioneering position in integrating Bitcoin into the national financial system as its Parliament has just passed a law allowing large financial institutions to provide digital asset services to sophisticated investors. This move marks a shift from retail application to attracting institutional capital in the Central American nation's Bitcoin strategy.
According to the newly passed law, financial institutions with a minimum capital of $50 million will qualify to become investment banks, regulated under a separate framework from traditional commercial banks. These investment banks can apply for various licenses to provide financial instruments related to cryptocurrencies for investors holding at least $250,000 in liquid assets, including Bitcoin.
A notable point of this law is the integration of previously existing cryptocurrency license categories – including Bitcoin service providers, digital asset service providers, and digital asset issuers – into the current investment banking license. This approach allows financially capable organizations to hold Bitcoin, issue tokens, and structure transactions linked to cryptocurrencies within the existing legal framework without the need to create an entirely new regulatory framework.
Shifting from retail to institutional
Congresswoman Dania González emphasized in a press release that "the institutional architecture of El Salvador's financial system will be expanded with a new entity, but still within the framework of regulation and supervision, complementing the traditional banking system." This law has received support from the Ministry of Economy of El Salvador, reflecting the government's long-term commitment to developing the digital asset ecosystem.
This move reflects a significant shift in focus from individual investors to large institutional capital. Although El Salvador once required all businesses to accept Bitcoin payments in 2021, the country retracted that regulation along with public sector Bitcoin programs at the beginning of 2025 to secure a $1.4 billion loan from the IMF.
Actual figures show that the rate of Bitcoin adoption among the population of El Salvador remains low, with only about 1% of remittances related to cryptocurrencies and only 2 out of 10 people indicating that they have used cryptocurrencies. Despite initial efforts to promote widespread adoption, the reality shows that integrating Bitcoin into the daily financial activities of the people still faces many challenges.
Although the Bitcoin Office, overseen by President Nayib Bukele, claims to be buying 1 BTC every day, the President of the Central Bank and the Minister of Finance of El Salvador informed the IMF in July that the country has not purchased any additional Bitcoin since signing the loan agreement. The IMF report revealed that the Bitcoin purchases publicly announced were actually just consolidating previously acquired BTC from various government wallets into a central "reserve" wallet.
