The market demand for cryptocurrency ATMs has grown rapidly. Cryptocurrency owners need ATMs to quickly exchange and spend their invested cash when they need to, and the competition between cryptocurrency ATM providers is heating up.
The number of Bitcoin$7016.09 +0.04% ATMs quadrupled across 2017 according to Statista and is still rising.The first cryptocurrency ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver in 2013 and, according to data from coinatmradar.com, there are now 3502 Bitcoin$7016.09 +0.04% ATMs in operation globally.
Over half of current cryptocurrency ATMs support at least one altcoin as well as Bitcoin$7016.09 +0.04%. 49% offer Litecoin transactions and 32% offer Ethereum. The average fee for using a cryptocurrency ATM transaction is around 8%.
Coinatmradar estimates new cryptocurrency ATMs are being installed around the globe at a rate of nearly 9 per day. At this rate, there will be nearly 5000 cryptocurrency ATMs in operation by the end of 2018.
Mike Dupree, CEO of ATM makers EasyBit, says his firm is targeting customers already using cryptocurrencies and that building customers outside of this niche is a challenge. Dupree recognizes that the fall in cryptocurrency prices and regulatory concerns affects the market, but predicts:
“The beauty of cryptocurrencies is that you don’t have to trust a financial institution to back your wealth. Decentralization is the future, and regulation will eventually fall in line.”
Source Bitcoinist