Convenience Stores and Pawn Shops See Foot Traffic from Bitcoin ATMs

Bitcoin is continuing its popular trend throughout society, and these days the decentralized currency can now be purchased at your local bodega, gas station, deli, and convenience store. According to recent reports, bitcoin teller machines (BTMs) worldwide are popping up in great numbers; most notably in the U.S. as the country now commands roughly 1,279 crypto-dispensing devices.

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The Last Months of 2017 Sees an Increase in Bitcoin Teller Machines With the U.S. Commanding Over 1,200 Devices

During the end of 2017, the bitcoin teller machine environment has been growing fast as the market has seen a 7.6 percent increase in machines worldwide over the past few months. The biggest markets for BTMs reside in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Austria. However, at the moment the U.S. has over 75 percent of the BTM market share globally with roughly 1,270 tellers according to Coinatmradar’s data statistics. On the global level, the most prominent BTM manufacturers include Genesiscoin, General Bytes, and Lamassu. Other BTM producers with smaller machine percentages are Bitaccess, Covault, Bitxatm, and a few unknown manufacturers.

Coinsource is the largest BTM provider in the U.S. with over 160 machines, and the company aims to install 1,000 in 2018. Coinsource and another company, called Coinbtm, are also the only teller machine startups allowed to legally operate in New York due to the state’s Bitlicense regulations. The firm Coinsource was created by Bobby Sharp and Sheffield Clark, two businessmen who grew passionate about bitcoin and thought BTMs were a great way to get started.

“It was just this interesting phenomenon, and the plug-and-play aspect was pretty nice,” Sharp told the publication, Pacific Standard, this week.

You don’t have labor costs — Your labor is a machine.

Mom & Pop Shops, Bodegas, and Delis Get Crypto-Fixtures That Are Seeing Traffic

According to the publication, clerks and owners of bodegas in the U.S. see the machines getting a lot of traffic. A Brooklyn bodega called 545 Deli Grocery says the BTM in their store is used often. A Manhattan convenience store called Grace News reveals their machine is also popular these days. Another firm that’s been making moves in the U.S. with gas station owners, bodegas and pawn shops is the Athena Bitcoin Network. Athena has 55 BTMs in circulation throughout America and one machine located in Yucatán Mexico at a place called Lapa Lapa Altabrisa Mérida. On December 1 the firm installed six new machines in California. The new BTMs Athena added are located in Anaheim, Colton, Los Angeles, Hesperia, and Culver City.

Three Teller Machines Installed Per Day and Alternative Digital Asset Support Increases

Many of these companies are installing machines across many states within the U.S. and a variety of other countries. Coinatmradar shows BTMs are increasing at a rapid rate globally with three BTM installations per day, based on the last seven days using gauge scale calculations from the previous two months.

In addition to the increase of a variety of businesses and merchants nationwide adding bitcoin-based automated teller machines, multi-currency support has also increased significantly. In 2017 a lot of teller machine operators implemented support for other digital assets including dash, litecoin, ethereum, monero, zcash, and bitcoin cash.

What do you think about the increase in bodegas and mom and pop shops hosting BTMs in their storefronts? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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