With 10,000 machines placed globally, bitcoin ATMs have become the go-to service for those participating in the cash-to-crypto market. Image credit: AdobeStock
We can see that there are 10162 Bitcoin ATM machines seen everywhere in 71 countries worldwide.The journey towards this Bitcoin ATM started in the year 2003 and now it has reached a significant number of 10k. According to Coinatmradar initially in the first 3.5 years only 1000 bitcoins, ATMs were active. And he was quite hopeful that this number would increase to 10,000 ATM in the next 3.5 years’ time period.
Along with 10,162 cryptocurrency ATMs installed in 71 countries, we can find 211,270 other locations selling bitcoin such as mall kiosks and convenience stores.
Coinflip CEO Daniel Polotsky has expressed some other facts about the bitcoin ATM industry
According to him now with 10,000 machines placed globally, the bitcoin ATMs have become a more convenient service. It provides ease for the people involved in the cash-to-crypto market, including a significant amount of the unbanked and underbanked. He further explained that his company’s next initiative is to install between 30 and 50 bitcoin ATMs per week. It is planning to have 3,000 bitcoin ATMs by the end of next year. Keep learning about more plannings on bitcoin ATMs only from bitcoinprime.net
The USA is still in the top position having most of the Bitcoin ATM installed in 8.004 locations. After this Canada is here with 879 locations for Bitcoin ATMs. The UK has 281 locations for this, Austria with 152, Spain has 105 locations for this and Switzerland is occupying 81 locations for Bitcoin ATM machines.
A company named Genesis Coin is on the top of the list of bitcoin ATM manufacturers, with 3,574 of its machines installed. On the second number comes the General Bytes installing 2,964 machines, Bitaccess comes on third with 1,040 machines, Coinsource was successful to instal 632 machines, and Lamassu had its share of installing 518 machines.
We are also to discuss the top operators for bitcoin ATM. There are top 10 operators who are recognized to run 5,263 crypto ATMs (52%). There are 545 other operators who are running 4,857 crypto ATMs, according to a report by Coinatmradar. On the top of the list comes the Coin Cloud followed by Coinflip, Bitcoin Depot, Rockitcoin, Coinsource, and Bitcoin of America.
We can expect an influx for the new investors who might seek help to get started during the next bull run. Offering simplicity and personalized service, bitcoin ATMs have played a big role in the adoption of Bitcoin
Polotsky expressed his views that as we are seeing blockchain-based financial services developing into an industry, so in this way ATMs will become an essential gateway for the underbanked. It would bring immense benefit along with an inclusive financial system
Bitcoin ATM has been a big step as a financial gateway. This service of Bitcoin ATMs has made the whole process of transactions a simple one.
With the increase in the number of BTC ATMs, one of the crypto analytics firms is of the view that these ATMs are being used is to bypass anti-money laundering (AML) controls.
In a report published by CipherTrace earlier this month, revealed that bitcoin ATMs were frequently used to send funds to “high-risk exchanges” including trading platforms. Some of these companies were considered to be known for paving the way for criminal activity and money laundering.
It is right that this cash-based machine, a bitcoin ATM is facilitating the people to buy and sell bitcoins. It is all done directly through an exchange, with bank cards or even it can be done with hard cash. It is a great facility as the users don’t need to have a digital wallet: These are created by the machines, providing users with printouts of the wallet addresses and private keys.
CipherTrace also said that a large number of people in the US were engaged in bitcoin ATM transactions in 2019, and surprisingly enough around 88%, sent funds to offshore destinations.
This activity was further complemented with the increase in the number of new bitcoin ATMs introduced to the market.
However, it was claimed by the Bitcoin ATM operators that they are doing their best to follow regulations. ATM services in the U.S should make some strategies with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a money service business and keep records of their transactions. All this process should build a proper know-your-customer (KYC) protocols and report anything suspicious to the authorities.