The Growth of Bitcoin ATMs by Country

[siniminomorocomunisakito]

Currently, the number of Bitcoin ATMs by country can be seen at https://coinatmradar.com/countries/ shows an increase in usage. Will the number increase or decrease due to the impact of the projected global economic recession that will occur in the future??

[fiulpro]

Overall a Good site, I decided to come to India, then realized that the ATM's available in India are only (2) that is actually sad, in the last year I have been living in Ukraine and UK as well, where the adoption of cryptocurrencies is far better since it's syncing with the government as well but in India even though the people are loving the whole idea of cryptocurrencies unfortunately they are not really getting enough support from the government.

I personally do not support the idea of ATMs since they charge excessive fee which you can easily bypass by having a teeny tiny application in your mobile making very easy to withdraw the cash as well. Therefore if you have to exchange money i would advise you to use mobile applications most of them also have instant withdrawals which is extremely convenient.

[jackg]

I don't think they're that useful so I'd expect them to not be used much in the future. That probably doesn't mean they'll decline in use now though. If they were bought as something hobbyistic or different for a company to have then they'll probably keep it where it is and they're potentially useful for emergency cash in some circumstances (such as for countries with bad bank transfer speeds).

[NeuroticFish]

Will the number increase or decrease due to the impact of the projected global economic recession that will occur in the future??

We cannot know the future. We don't even know if or when global economic recession will happen, nor how big it will be and what will be the effects on bitcoin ATMs.
What I know is that Bitcoin ATMs tend to have a bit big fees and the KYC laws will - sooner or later - affect them all. For now the big premium may be OK because of anonymity. Later.. no use.
Back to recession: in such cases many liquidate all the investments, including bitcoin. So an even worse crypto winter may happen. In such moments the extra fees do hurt. So the impact may be negative. But again, we don't know, it's just cheap speculation.

[Rikafip]

I can see ATM numbers declining unless they start lowering the fees, because why should I pay 6-7% when its so easy nowadays (at least in my country) to find places where I can buy/sell bitcoin anonymously for ~3% fee. Another big problem is that ATMs are starting to enforce KYC and when you combine that with generally higher fees, I don't see much future for them.

I used them for years to buy/sell bitcoin, but at the moment they are my last option.

[jakelyson]

Checked the site and was surprised to see that there is one near where I work. I pass there every day and never noticed it, not even once. Will check it if it really exists.

Will the number increase or decrease due to the impact of the projected global economic recession that will occur in the future??

I do not think so. I do not see any connection or impact of recession to usage of Bitcoin ATMs. It will have an impact on bitcoin but then, do you really need an ATM specifically just for bitcoin/crypto? If ever, there are tons of mobile apps that you can use to service your needs in any crypto transactions. And its ease of use, availability and portability surpasses any ATMs.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I think the major downside, and what has been the major reason why the ATMs are not that frequently used, and still, the usage won't grow as much as we expect in the future is due to its usage fees, which I believe are currently expensive, Bitcoin ATMs are still very few, and as such, there is no competition amongst them, the ATM owners will need money to keep maintaining the ATMs, as for this reason, will charge a certain amount of fees which might not be cheap for many users, most especially, the bitcoin small players.

So this is why I believe the usage of Bitcoin ATMs have not skyrocketed, and won't Skyrocket as much as we will expect, except centralized exchanges adopt the idea, this I would explain in a thread am creating on this topic.

[Lucius]

Crypto ATMs business is obviously booming in the US, and we can say that Canada somewhat follows that trend - while the rest of the world does not show too much interest in such a way of trading cryptocurrencies. The number of such devices is also quite good in some EU countries, where Spain is at the top with 212, followed by countries such as Poland, Austria, Romania and Italy. The fact that Portugal has only 6 such devices surprised me, considering that country is often mentioned as one of the most desirable when it comes to cryptocurrencies - but it seems that this is not a decisive factor affecting the interest in this type of service.

Inflation and recession may slow down the number of newly installed devices, but unless some anti-crypto law appears in the US and Canada, I don't see their number decreasing in the future.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I don't think they're that useful so I'd expect them to not be used much in the future.

I wonder about that.  If they weren't useful and people rarely used them, then I don't understand the explosion of BTCATMs that's happened in the last year.  I started a thread 2 years ago about my first time using one successfully, and I had to travel about 12 miles to do it, as the closest one to me wasn't working.  And today?  There are at least 6 BTCATMs in my city, and the nearest one is about 300 yards away!

So there must be something to these things, meaning they must be profitable for whoever's running them.  If they weren't, I think we'd have seen a decline in them by now.

[ChiBitCTy]

Here's a pretty cool thread about bitcoin ATM growth my buddy posted recently in the basic bitcoin discussion board.  There's some good chatter in the the replies as well about some peoples experience in their country with ATMS and their growth  ( or lack thereof ).

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5404405.msg60465352#msg60465352

[Husires]

Currently, the number of Bitcoin ATMs by country can be seen at https://coinatmradar.com/countries/ shows an increase in usage. Will the number increase or decrease due to the impact of the projected global economic recession that will occur in the future??

It depends on the fees, if low fees apply, I have no objection to using these ATMs.
There are some Bitcoin ATM machines (Bleskomat: The next generation Bitcoin Lightning ATM) that accept lightning payments (no on-chain fees) that make the fees low and confirmations are instant which means more users will use them, imagine paying 201 and getting $200 (a dollar fee).

The Bleskomat ATM uses Lightning payments exclusively, so there are no on-chain fees. Instead a small routing fee is paid to route the payment thru the Lightning Network until it reaches the recipient. To send Lightning payments is much cheaper, typically less than a single cent.

At this moment it is only useful in hotels, airports,malls, and hospitals.

Read about LN ATMs: https://www.bullfrag.com/this-bitcoin-atm-supports-lightning-and-you-can-put-it-together-yourself/

[el kaka22]

There isn't a logical that makes people use it. That’s the problem, sure there could be some increase because people like to use crypto and it’s a growing industry right now, but bitcoin ATM is not the biggest part of it, it’s really not needed. We have exchanges that we could move our money from banks to exchanges and then exchanges to banks, then we could use banks for that.

I believe that we should not be expecting this deal to go higher too much, it’s going to be something serious, but for a while, then it will go lower and lower and lower. This is why we can't expect too much from them, it’s going to be like 1-2k max amounts all around the world for how little people like it.

[Poker Player]

I can see ATM numbers declining unless they start lowering the fees, because why should I pay 6-7% when its so easy nowadays (at least in my country) to find places where I can buy/sell bitcoin anonymously for ~3% fee. Another big problem is that ATMs are starting to enforce KYC and when you combine that with generally higher fees, I don't see much future for them.

I have the same opinion, and it is one thing I have commented on in several threads regarding ATMs.

I wonder about that.  If they weren't useful and people rarely used them, then I don't understand the explosion of BTCATMs that's happened in the last year.  I started a thread 2 years ago about my first time using one successfully, and I had to travel about 12 miles to do it, as the closest one to me wasn't working.  And today?  There are at least 6 BTCATMs in my city, and the nearest one is about 300 yards away!

So there must be something to these things, meaning they must be profitable for whoever's running them.  If they weren't, I think we'd have seen a decline in them by now.

They are really profitable. Once the initial investment has been made, they only need electricity to operate and a technician to check them from time to time, and if they are located in shopping malls or similar places, the owner doesn't even pay for the electricity.

But the ATMs you have seen are KYC? It sounds to me that in the USA they all require identification, as is increasingly happening in Europe, and I do not understand how people use it because of the above, unless they are people who see the machine and buy Bitcoin like someone who buys a lottery ticket.

[mindrust]

Overall a Good site, I decided to come to India, then realized that the ATM's available in India are only (2) that is actually sad, in the last year I have been living in Ukraine and UK as well, where the adoption of cryptocurrencies is far better since it's syncing with the government as well but in India even though the people are loving the whole idea of cryptocurrencies unfortunately they are not really getting enough support from the government.

I personally do not support the idea of ATMs since they charge excessive fee which you can easily bypass by having a teeny tiny application in your mobile making very easy to withdraw the cash as well. Therefore if you have to exchange money i would advise you to use mobile applications most of them also have instant withdrawals which is extremely convenient.

Wasn’t bitcoin banned in India? Am I remembering this wrong? Maybe that’s the reason.

I don’t like ATM’s too. They charge huge fees but they do this for a reason. Even though you can’t hack a bitcoin address, you can steal the physical banknotes inside the ATM and this happens from time to time. They simply charge you higher because of the risk they bear.  In the end it is the consumer that pays for the stolen money from the ATM’s.

[2stout]

Does serve a practical purpose but even if it didn't this is still good from a publicity standpoint which in turn raises awareness, which in turn can increase the number of bitcoin users.

[Bttzed03]

I'm surprised I'm seeing more bitcoin ATMs from my home country now. I remember it was just two/three when I was searching. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if some of these stores already closed because of lack of foot traffic caused by the pandemic. We know most economies are now opening up and allows people to go out but almost everyone is still trying to recover financially. Other than that, I don't really see locals willing inconvenience themselves from going through the verification process required by these ATM operators and also the fees.

I don't think they're that useful so I'd expect them to not be used much in the future. That probably doesn't mean they'll decline in use now though. If they were bought as something hobbyistic or different for a company to have then they'll probably keep it where it is and they're potentially useful for emergency cash in some circumstances (such as for countries with bad bank transfer speeds).

I also see foreign travelers benefiting from this. It's probably more convenient to just exchange your crypto for local fiat over an ATM than carry USD and go through money exchangers or to the banks.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

It depends on the fees, if low fees apply, I have no objection to using these ATMs.

You've definitely got a point about the fees, and I think ATMs might appeal to people who are just getting into bitcoin and don't know much about exchanges or who don't feel comfortable linking their bank account to Coinbase or some other exchange that deals with fiat.  But if that's true, I suspect that as those people begin to learn more about how things work (and which exchanges are trustworthy), they'll realize that those BTCATM fees are outrageous and will stop using them altogether.

So I'm not exactly optimistic about the future of them, even if there's been an explosion in their availability.  In fact, I'd say the BTCATM market might just be saturated at the moment.  I see the numbers as far as how many there are, but I don't remember ever seeing any data as to their actual usage (though I might have missed it).  I'm wondering if a lot of people are actually buying crypto that way or if the profit margins are just so high that it's worth it to the operator to keep them functional even if only a small number of customers use them.

[AicecreaME]

Currently, the number of Bitcoin ATMs by country can be seen at https://coinatmradar.com/countries/ shows an increase in usage. Will the number increase or decrease due to the impact of the projected global economic recession that will occur in the future??

There's no right answer in this one because nothing is ever certain. We don't know if the global recession would ever happen and if it will really occur, the impact will vary from one place to another. So, saying the number of bitcoin ATM will increase or decrease will be futile because there's also nothing to back up such claims. Increase of usage of bitcoin ATMs could possess various reasons. Perhaps the fees might be a little lower compared to exchangers in some areas or maybe it is convenient for them. While there is a reason for people to use it, they definitely will. Although here in our country, I hardly hear there is one nor ever seen one on my own eyes. Lucky for those areas that have numerous bitcoin ATMs to cater them because it's a great alternative if you don't want or there's no available exchanger.

[aysg76]

I can see ATM numbers declining unless they start lowering the fees, because why should I pay 6-7% when its so easy nowadays (at least in my country) to find places where I can buy/sell bitcoin anonymously for ~3% fee. Another big problem is that ATMs are starting to enforce KYC and when you combine that with generally higher fees, I don't see much future for them.

The varying fees is issue and some companies are changing high fees above 10% also and including extra charges for the transaction you are making so this is problem for small transactions as they could consume a major portion of it.And yes KYC is big issue for all who wants to remain anonymous and now they are enforcing you to go through it serving government policies so didn't find any fun in them now.

I wonder about that.  If they weren't useful and people rarely used them, then I don't understand the explosion of BTCATMs that's happened in the last year.  I started a thread 2 years ago about my first time using one successfully, and I had to travel about 12 miles to do it, as the closest one to me wasn't working.  And today?  There are at least 6 BTCATMs in my city, and the nearest one is about 300 yards away!

So there must be something to these things, meaning they must be profitable for whoever's running them.  If they weren't, I think we'd have seen a decline in them by now.

For sure they are profitable business and that's why they are running this business and we have seen so many companies jumping into it and their fees varies from each other.

About the production then they might be having assembly lines in some cheap labour countries for bulk production cutting down the manufacturing cost and according to this reddit post a full bitcoin ATM cost around $650 : Bitcoin ATM cost

Now for profits they are also good like they are earning in some ways :

The ROI will depend upon several factors, such as the following:   

Location of the business (e.g. commercial district, high-traffic) 
Number of daily transactions     
Average transaction size (e.g. amount users transact) 
Total expected revenue from transaction fees   
Marketing strategy to promote your Bitcoin ATM                 
According to estimates from CoinATMRadar, one Bitcoin ATM machine has the potential to earn up to $3,000 a month (e.g. $36,000/year) with gross monthly revenues of $30,000. This can go even higher with an increase in the volume of transactions. 

Source : Profits

So there are ways by which they are making huge profits but users are facing many difficulties so it's better to find some other ways like localbitcoins or P2P ways to buy/sell your coins with less fees.

[stompix]

It depends on the fees, if low fees apply, I have no objection to using these ATMs.
There are some Bitcoin ATM machines (Bleskomat: The next generation Bitcoin Lightning ATM) that accept lightning payments (no on-chain fees) that make the fees low and confirmations are instant which means more users will use them, imagine paying 201 and getting $200 (a dollar fee).

Unfortunately, it's not like the fee will be 1 cent for users, that advertisement covers the internal transactions that the owner of the ATM has to pay.
Let's assume an ATM charges you 1$ per transaction, the same ATM that cost 2500E as a ready machine, an ATM for which the owner will have to pay maintenance, rent if it's not his location, and electricity and internet, and make a profit.

ATMs have those fees because a lot of people have to make a profit, the ATM provider, the exchange that facilitates the transactions, the owner of the ATM, the owner of the location, and so on and on, and if you already have 35 000 ATMs in a country you can't expect that each will get 1000 customers a month either.

Currently, the number of Bitcoin ATMs by country can be seen at https://coinatmradar.com/countries/ shows an increase in usage.

Increase in "installations" not usage, nobody but the operators of those know if there is an increase in customers or not, and even that increase is concentrated in North America, with the US having an unbelievable 88% of the total, so it's more like one country is getting more and more and the other are watching from the sideline. The numbers are really crazy, all of Asia has 0.7% while Canada with 1% of the population has 6.3%.

The fact that Portugal has only 6 such devices surprised me, considering that country is often mentioned as one of the most desirable when it comes to cryptocurrencies - but it seems that this is not a decisive factor affecting the interest in this type of service.

Probably a cumulation of factors, from laws and regulations to habits of the consumers, France to has only 5 ATMs, but for a while it had this:
https://coinatmradar.com/manufacturer/122/keplerk-crypto-service-provider/
since all links are offline, probably it didn't appeal that much to the population.