The world’s first bitcoin ATM — located in a coffee shop in downtown Vancouver — traded $100,000 CAD of the cybercurrency in its first week, said the man behind the machine.

The strong start was little surprise to Mitchell Demeter, the co-founder of Bitcoiniacs, who said use of the virtual currency continues to grow unchecked.

“We’ve had lineups all day every day,” said Demeter on Friday.

Bitcoiniacs, which operates a physical bitcoin exchange store near Granville Island in addition to its ATM, is not releasing numbers on how many unique traders had used the ATM, but Demeter said the appeal of bitcoin has begun to reach far beyond the currency’s niche base of tech-savvy netizens.

“We knew people would be excited and interested,” said Demeter. “I’m a little bit surprised by the amount of new people who are excited about it and just coming out and learning.”

He said the ATM has made the currency real for people.

“It’s taken bitcoin to the next stage,” he said. “It’s something people can see.”

Bitcoin is digital, existing on the Internet but bought or sold for traditional currency, and used to purchase goods and services online and off.

When the Bitcoiniacs ATM went online Oct. 29 at a Waves coffee shop at Howe and Smithe streets, bitcoin was trading for about $200. By Friday evening, VirtEx, a Canadian Virtual Exchange listed it at $326.

At the ATM users can deposit cash in the machine. The bills are read and money is exchanged instantly on the VirtEx exchange for bitcoins that are deposited to an online wallet. ATM users can also withdraw cash from the machine in exchange for bitcoins in their virtual wallet.

Demeter said many people have come out to try the ATM purely out of curiosity.

The system’s userface is already easy to use, said Demeter, adding that it is about to get easier with a planned redesign.

“It’ll be as easy to use as an iPad.”

Demeter said Toronto is the most likely location of Bitcoiniacs’ next machine.

With files from Gillian Shaw.

mattrobinson@postmedia.com