In the Salvadoran surf town of El Zonte, it is possible to pay for anything from coffee and pupusas to hotels and surf lessons using bitcoin. Known globally as ‘Bitcoin Beach’, the town became a testing ground for a grassroots cryptocurrency initiative in 2019.
When Californian expat Mike Peterson allegedly received a large, anonymous bitcoin donation to spend on community projects — without transferring it into USD — he partnered with Román Martínez Centeno to create the Bitcoin Beach project. The project aimed to provide financial services to the population of El Zonte which was, at the time, 90% unbanked, and create a sustainable, circular bitcoin economy.
At this time — back when El Salvador was still considered too unsafe for mass tourism to take hold — El Zonte had a surf-driven tourism economy. Between dirt roads and black-sand beaches, the town of 3,000 people had only a few local guesthouses, comedores, and basic surfhouses. Locals and visitors alike began using the Bitcoin Beach Wallet app (now Blink Wallet) to pay for goods and services using bitcoin, quickly attracting significant international attention.
In 2026, El Zonte is no longer the quiet, unassuming beach town it once was. The paved road which connects the town to the coastal highway is lined with colourful casas with thatched roofs and surfboard signposts, boutique hotels, all stone, bamboo, and scandi aesthetics, and adjacent wellness centres advertising saunas, cold plunges and a wide range of spa treatments.
Traffic wardens are a permanent fixture, needed to manage the congestion which now risks overwhelming the once rustic beach town, marshalling open-top trucks carrying fresh fruit and thick blue cylinders of potable water, alongside minivans and four wheel drives. Businesses throughout the town, from traditional tiendas to breakfast bars and coffee shops, are adorned with the bitcoin logo. One sign reads ‘Fix the money, fix the world.’
Yet beyond El Zonte’s now bustling town centre, many homes are modest wooden shacks with corrugated iron roofs and dusty yards. Where the Bitcoin Beach project has undoubtedly proved to be a catalyst for investment, development and a growing international profile, it has also led to rapidly rising costs and inequalities in the town. It also raises questions about whether the economic benefits are being felt across the wider community or whether the town risks pricing out the people the initiative intended to support. Property prices have increased exponentially, new accommodation is reshaping the coastline, and the town is attracting a new wave of visitors, from digital nomads and crypto-enthusiasts to business owners and tech founders.
Chris, a New York-based lifeguard and surf enthusiast has been visiting El Zonte for ten years. Unfortunately, a recent surfing accident left him with a broken ankle and a sizable cast wrapped around his lower leg, meaning he is now observing from an ocean-side restaurant terrace. Bella Luna has been here for years, Chris tells me. In fact, he rents a room in the guesthouse behind it, though prices have started to creep up. I had thought this may be the case, having ordered what I would describe as a gourmet version of a Salvadoran cena tipica (typical dinner) consisting of refried bean hash, avocado, boiled eggs, cheese, garlic sautéed vegetables and fried tortillas, for a pricey 10 USD.
‘The Bitcoin project has attracted some very weird people who are obsessed with bitcoin,’ he says. ‘Tech bros, crypto guys, yogis…there used to be surfers and backpackers here.’
Though Chris’s reservations about El Zonte’s new clientele do not extend to cryptocurrency.
‘I do have about $2000 in bitcoin,’ he says. ‘Better to be in the game.’
As I browse the souvenir and surf shops in El Zonte, I begin to build a picture of El Zonte’s new travelers. Zonteños Souvenirs, which has an offering of locally made crafts, also sells bitcoin merchandise ranging from ‘Bukele’ caps to ‘Satoshi Runners’ club t-shirts. The run club, named after Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, connects discipline in endurance sport to the discipline required to build wealth. Blanca, the young Salvadorian woman manning the front desk, says that many people who visit the store pay with bitcoin. I later learned that Zonteños is the former community hub of the Hope House, the local NGO that helped to implement the bitcoin project back in 2019.
Inside another local business, a tour agency which doubles up as a surf boutique, I meet 18-year-old Oscar, who grew up in El Zonte. Four years ago, Oscar was one of the first people in his community to set up the Bitcoin Beach Wallet app, and helped others to do the same.
‘I was a bitcoin connoisseur,’ he smiles. ‘I worked with Hope House to help other people get set up on Bitcoin Beach Wallet. The app is very easy to use. People of all ages use it, though most people still pay in USD.’
‘El Zonte has changed a lot,’ he continues. ‘It is famous now and it’s very busy, but local people have benefitted hugely from investment in the area. There are jobs for young people now.’
Oscar recommended I visit the Bitcoin Beach House, though it was closed for Easter weekend during my trip. Still, the organisation’s digital footprint offered insight into what Bitcoin Beach has become.
Its Instagram describes the project as ‘driving circular economies for a sustainable future’, while advertising startup meet-ups, Bitcoin workshops for university students and beach gatherings for entrepreneurs and surfers alike. The organisation hosts a rotating cast of external speakers, from the non-profit My First Bitcoin — which promotes financial autonomy through crypto education — to start-ups pitching El Zonte as ‘the Hollywood of AI.’
This influx of visitors has inevitably transformed the property market in El Zonte, where estate agents are now among the newest additions to the town centre. Goodlife Real Estate channels the aspirational hustle of Bitcoin Beach with signs that read: ‘the only bad time to buy real estate is later.’
Inside, it is a small space with blacked out windows, air conditioning and Condé Nast Traveller magazines spread out on coffee tables, giving away the property market’s target consumer. I spoke with Oma, a polished and eloquent property consultant, who explained there has been a boom in property since the genesis of the Bitcoin Beach project. Although there has been a mix of national and foreign buyers, local people are getting priced out.
‘It’s an inevitable part of development,’ she says. ‘A beachfront house could sell for $800,000, while a one-bedroom apartment suitable for Airbnb might cost between $300,000 and $340,000.’
‘In more remote areas, land can still go for as little as $150,000,’ Oma adds, putting figures to El Zonte’s growing bubble of crypto-gentrification.
‘Property is only going up,’ she says reassuringly, signing me up to a newsletter. ‘So don’t worry about that.’
Having noted the much higher than average rental premiums in El Zonte, I opted to stay in nearby El Parmacito, a black-sand cove framed by cliffs to the east. At only $13 per night for a dorm room, Hammock Plantation was a rare budget option for this spot on the Pacific Coast. It was opened eight years ago by Marc and Xenia, a Deutsch-Salvadoran couple, who live on the property with their two daughters.
‘There was an influx of people who came to visit Bitcoin Beach, but this has calmed down in the last two years,’ Marc says. ‘One in twenty guests used to pay with bitcoin; now it’s more like one in a hundred as the novelty has worn off.’
Despite this, Marc explains how bitcoin has been beneficial to the local community.
‘[Learning about cryptocurrency] has helped to shift the mindset of local people who have been living weekly from paycheck to paycheck to think about money in a more long-term way. It has been educational and also given people more agency as such a high percentage was unbanked.’
He continues, ‘A downside is that Bitcoin is currently volatile because it is still a relatively small market, and ‘whales’ — people or organisations that hold large amounts of Bitcoin — can disproportionately affect the market through large buy and sell orders. However, it is still a good long-term investment.’
The rise of Bitcoin Beach feels like a familiar story of gentrification, reframed through the language of cryptocurrency, startups and tech culture. The promise to ‘fix the money’ has transformed far more than payments alone, reshaping El Zonte through tourism and investment. Conversations with local people suggest the benefits have not been entirely superficial. For many younger Salvadorans in particular, the project has created employment opportunities, exposure to new industries and greater financial literacy in a community where access to banking and economic opportunity was previously limited.
Still, there remains a striking contradiction at the centre of Bitcoin Beach: while bitcoin branding is everywhere, everyday transactions still overwhelmingly happen in US dollars. From conversations in El Zonte, as well as wider reporting and research, bitcoin appears to function more powerfully as a symbol and marketing tool than as everyday economic infrastructure. The original initiative addressed genuine problems — from financial exclusion to expensive remittance systems — and introduced digital payment systems to an unbanked community. But the larger transformation seems to have come less from bitcoin itself than from the speculative and symbolic economy that formed around it.
Today, El Zonte exists somewhere between a surf town, crypto showcase and startup playground. Bitcoin has brought visibility, jobs, infrastructure and international attention, but it has also accelerated inequalities already familiar in tourism-driven economies around the world: rising rents, speculative property markets and the gradual erosion of local identity.
Bitcoin Beach may have begun as a local financial experiment, but its transformation — alongside the emergence of similar projects elsewhere, from Costa Rica’s Bitcoin Jungle to Bitcoin Island in the Philippines — raises wider questions about how marginalised communities can navigate rapid outside investment and tech-driven development without losing control of their local economy and identity.
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