Although Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general, have been experiencing some rather turbulent times lately, the number of cryptocurrency ATMs is growing and continues to do so in record numbers.
It’s estimated that there are about 5 new Bitcoin ATMs popping up almost every day around the world.
Bitcoin ATMs Have Double in One Year
Until the beginning of December 2017, the cryptocurrency market had been standing quite well on its own. And, with good reason since Bitcoin’s value had reached a record-breaking high of $20,000. But, by the end of the month, Satoshi Nakamoto’s beloved cryptocurrency had dropped to $18,000.
Bitcoin is now going through some severe market corrections and now, FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) runs rampant through the crypto markets.
Since all other cryptocurrencies are derivatives of Bitcoin, it will always have a major effect on them. Since reaching its record-breaking high, the overall market cap for cryptocurrencies has dropped to $276 billion, which is a violent crashed compared to when it had reached $834 billion at the beginning of the month.
Still, this has had no effect on the development of cryptocurrency banking machines (ATMs). According to some analyses, the implementation of these distribution points has experienced a boom in recent months.
While at the beginning of January 2017, there were only about 954 Bitcoin ATMs available around the world. Then, just one day later, on January 1st, 2018, it was estimated that there were about 2028 Bitcoin ATMs.
The latter number is equivalent to the number of Bitcoin ATMs that were available January 1st, 2018. Now, as of February 5th, 2018, this number has already made its way up to 2174. Of this number, about 43% of them are known to support the use of cryptocurrency.
Most of These ATMs are in the U.S.
When we take a deeper look, we’ve found that the largest number of cryptocurrency ATMs are found in the United States. In second place comes Canada with a total of 340 ATMs. Finally, in third place, the United Kingdom with an estimated 108 cryptocurrency ATMs.
Despite Japan’s and Asia’s massive influence on the cryptocurrency market, they only have a small number of cryptocurrency ATMs. There are roughly only 47 of them on the continent, which only makes up a 2.16% of the total number worldwide.
When using these machines, there is, of course, a fee and Bitcoin has never been on the affordable end of the spectrum. On the other hand, currencies such as Ether or Litecoin are far more affordable and could eventually become the most popularly used ATMs.
With a need for increased security measures, most ATM providers are equipping their machines with identification functions. Sometimes, those who use these Bitcoin ATMs don’t need to use these security features, while other times, it is mandatory.
