"Bitcoin Depot has reached a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company that values the cryptocurrency ATM firm at roughly $885 million and would take it public, company officials said.
The merger comes during market downturns for cryptocurrencies and SPACs and is expected to test investor appetite for bitcoin ATMs, which some skeptics associate with crimes and high fees."
I couldn't read the whole content since it required having a membership, but from what I've gathered through other sources, I'm having mixed feelings about the whole situation... Considering that in the past year or two, certain governments have tried introducing tighter rules towards BTM operators and their users, this basically rubs salt into the wound
[e.g. expanding their operations further at the expense of having less control and all of the privacy-related issues that might arise in the future].
But, it is going to let them get into a lot of locations that they could not previously due to the lack of funding / backing / capital.
There are many locations that due to regulations it's difficult to setup ATMs, and BATMs are included in that, because there are regulations that require certain amounts of financial backing and assets. So now they can get into those locations. Hardware, leases and everything else also cost money. And hopefully some customer support staff.
-Dave
