A Seattle-based Bitcoin ATM company, Coinme, has partnered with Coinstar exchange kiosks to enable Bitcoin purchases at shops in California, Texas, and Washington.

Shoppers already use Coinstar machines to convert loose change into bills or gift cards. The machines are large coin-cashing kiosks located in retail locations in the UK, US, Canada, and Ireland. Coinstar currently has a network of over 20,000 coinstar locations across the world.

Coinme, the first state-licensed Bitcoin ATM company in the U.S., announced a partnership with Coinstar on Jan. 17th to offer bitcoin on the coin-counting kiosks. Users are now able to purchase up to $2,500 worth of bitcoin at these machines at select Safeway and Albertson stores in California, Texas, and Washington.

They way it works is that you purchase bitcoin at one of these kiosks where you receive a voucher. You can then redeem that voucher for bitcoin on the Coinme website.

Bitcoin purchases with coins not possible

As good as this move is for wider adoption that customers are not allowed to use coins for Bitcoin transactions. Negating what otherwise have been a major selling point for customers who wanted to turn their spare change into bitcoin.

Hopefully Coinstar exchange kiosks will remedy this issue and include bitcoin purchase options with coins in the near future.

Coinstar exchange kiosks planned across the US

This rollout is only a trial and if successful, the company plans to expand to other retailers and locations in the United States. Thousands of these machines could be enabled to facilitate bitcoin transactions.

Coinme’s co-founder Neil Bergquist said:

“We’re excited to team up with Coinstar to give consumers a convenient and easy way to buy Bitcoin during the course of their daily routines. Bitcoin is now accessible at your local grocery store via Coinstar kiosks, and this offering will make it even easier for consumers to participate in this dynamic new economy.”

Coinstar’s CEO Jim Gaherity had this to say:

“Coinstar is always looking for new ways to offer value to our consumers when they visit our kiosks, and Coinme’s innovative delivery mechanism along with Coinstar’s flexible platform makes it possible for consumers to easily purchase Bitcoin with cash.”

If you ignore the fact you can buy bitcoin much more cheaply elsewhere, for people looking to get started with crypto, Coinstar kiosks are a good way to get started with buying bitcoin.