Net Bitcoin ATMs growth drops globally for the first time ever

[Henrobakkara]

Could it be re -withdrawn because they decided to put new updates or for any technical reasons and not necessarily be political, financial or organizational?
I did not used any bitcoin ATM, but I do not see it as an indication of increasing the alert or increasing/decreasing the proportion of bitcoin acceptance and so on.

I totally agree with you here. I have never also used a Bitcoin ATM and have never seen one in person and I also believe this situation is the same for 100% of the crypto people I know however, it does not affect our adoption of Bitcoin. As some have mentioned, there are downsides to the operation of these ATMS like here:

~snip~
And who buys Bitcoin at 8-20% markup? People being scammed and people doing shady business.

I would say that mainly those who try to avoid KYC buy in this way, but also those who have not yet found out that there is a much cheaper alternative, whether it is CEX or DEX.

It was also interesting to me if Bitcoin ATMs have limits for deposit. With regular ATM, in some countries there are monthly limits of 5k for cash deposit, and it is physically impossible to insert a pile of banknotes in ATM whole. 1 Bitcoin, that is $19k or a solid pack of cash. It will take time before you feed all the banknotes to ATM. I am sure that will gonna cause people's interest, when they observe a person inserting banknotes for 10-30minutes without stopping. To that will be first signs of loosing anonymity. Imagine a persons wants to turn shady cash into 5 or 10 BTC...

P.S. I just cant imagine a person that wants to turn $10 into BTC will care much about KYC and will go to ATM to lose 8-20%.

Either way, I don't see this affecting the general Bitcoin global trajectory in the future. 

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[VanillaH]

I would say that mainly those who try to avoid KYC buy in this way, but also those who have not yet found out that there is a much cheaper alternative, whether it is CEX or DEX.  As you yourself say, the price of such a device, along with all the costs arising from maintenance, insurance, and paying taxes, does not give the owners too much room to lower fees and be competitive with other players on the cryptocurrency market.

However, the number of such devices is constantly increasing, and regardless of the current situation, I think that it will continue, perhaps even at an accelerated pace, considering that more and more people are learning about Bitcoin and want to buy it in one way or another.

People who are doing shady business definitely avoid KYC. People who are being scammed, not so much. As a result, large transactions are often made by people who are being scammed, not people who are doing shady business.

We've had customers who didn't care so much about the fees as they were caught in the hype or they were only buying a small amount of BTC. We've also had customers who didn't know about cheaper alternatives, or who couldn't use them because they were being blocked by their banks. Unfortunately, these types of customers are not as common as one would think.

It was also interesting to me if Bitcoin ATMs have limits for deposit. With regular ATM, in some countries there are monthly limits of 5k for cash deposit, and it is physically impossible to insert a pile of banknotes in ATM whole. 1 Bitcoin, that is $19k or a solid pack of cash. It will take time before you feed all the banknotes to ATM. I am sure that will gonna cause people's interest, when they observe a person inserting banknotes for 10-30minutes without stopping. To that will be first signs of loosing anonymity. Imagine a persons wants to turn shady cash into 5 or 10 BTC...

P.S. I just cant imagine a person that wants to turn $10 into BTC will care much about KYC and will go to ATM to lose 8-20%.

The limits depend on the company and the law in the country. In Canada, if you want to buy or sell more than $1,000 at an ATM, you have to give out some of your personal information. If you want to buy or sell more than $10,000 per 24 hours at an ATM, you have to give even more information.

And yes, most ATMs will only accept one bill at a time, so it takes forever if you want to make a big transaction.

[Lucius]

People who are doing shady business definitely avoid KYC.

I avoid KYC not because I'm doing something suspicious, but because I have the option to trade completely legally without it, but also because I don't want to pay taxes in a country where almost every day a politician ends up in prison, or where the prime minister laughs because someone stole $100+ million from a state-owned company as if it were some minor thing that should not be paid attention to.

In addition, I think that crypto ATMs are a very bad way to conduct any suspicious business because they are located in public places that are usually under video surveillance - real criminals use fake documents and launder money in much more sophisticated ways.

[KennyR]

The usage and installation of cryptocurrencies saw a major rise from the year 2020. Whenever there is bearish movement in the market the usage and the installation gets affected. This is all about the impact of the market. In some countries amidst the prevailing market situation there is rise in the installation of cryptocurrency ATM. As mentioned Japan is a hub which helped in real-time usage of bitcoin through pos and ATMs.

[avikz]

Everything boils down to one thing - business profit! Installation of an ATM machine along with the rent of the space is a costly affair. So if those ATM machines are not bringing business profitability to the installer, why would any business entity bear the cost for an unforeseen time? No business would do that because it's a stupidity.

Crypto adoption is at a very nascent stage at this moment. So some locations may provide income, but as a business, installer needs to a cost benefit analysis and optimize their revenue stream. Probably that's what is happening!

[DaveF]

Was talking to someone removing a BATM at a local place that had been there for years near JFK. Although he did not give a number, he more or less said that the owner of the shop wanted close to 3x what they had been paying for floor space so he is pulling it. Apparently the other people renting space there including a regular ATM and a bill pay kiosk either have not had the increase hit yet or the profit margins are so large on their businesses it's not a big deal.

-Dave

[Rruchi man]

What do you think? Will the nearly 14 crypto ATMs being installed globally per day be able to compensate for the 796 crypto ATMs that were pulled off from the global network in September?

I'd say this is highly expected, as we can see that these are really the first set of wide scale challenges that the progress of bitcoin ATMs will be facing. A reduction in the number of bitcoin ATMs does not indicate a reduction in the number of bitcoin users. In the traditional banking system we see how many times ATMs are installed and then later removed from that locations either to be put elsewhere or to be sent back into storage, it hasn't affected or stopped people from getting to the new locations to still use these ATMs. Bitcoins will still do fine even without the BATM's.

[buwaytress]

^ I probably updated in a thread here and there around Covid onset, when machines were being removed, supposedly, as shop owners suggested, to install KYC limits and other requirements complying with AMLD5 (previous to 2020, I personally remember seeing 10,000k daily limit).

Well it's 2.5 years now and the several machines I remember in my area? Not a single one's been restored.

Airport one (Schiphol) didn't even last a year and no sign of it returning either.

[Lucius]

@buwaytress, crypto ATMs are for some reason very popular in the US&Canada, and the rest of the world has always been quite uninterested in such devices, whether it's because people are simply not interested in starting such a business, or when they do, they quickly realize that they can't make a profit.

It's probably also a matter of the right timing, because during the bull run, the FOMO that starts really pulls everyone into the Bitcoin game, and during the bear market, Bitcoin is almost completely meaningless to most ordinary people. Therefore, for everyone who starts such a business, apart from the location and advertising, I think that the right timing is also a possible key to the profitability of the business.

[buwaytress]

@buwaytress, crypto ATMs are for some reason very popular in the US&Canada, and the rest of the world has always been quite uninterested in such devices, whether it's because people are simply not interested in starting such a business, or when they do, they quickly realize that they can't make a profit.

It's probably also a matter of the right timing, because during the bull run, the FOMO that starts really pulls everyone into the Bitcoin game, and during the bear market, Bitcoin is almost completely meaningless to most ordinary people. Therefore, for everyone who starts such a business, apart from the location and advertising, I think that the right timing is also a possible key to the profitability of the business.

Yeah, I think in US, working with US people before, it's actually quite hard for many apparently to get their hands on Bitcoin. Localbitcoin, which is the easiest p2p, doesn't work for you unless you want to go to jail. And not everyone can get on a Coinbase or Gemini account, apparently. So the easiest is ATMs, also to cash out BTC.

Where I'm from that's definitely the case (business not making profit) but here where I live now I got the impression they are actually quite popular, just around pre Covid was a bad time to dismantle running up to the bull and ATH. The Schiphol one also launched in the last "winter" so perhaps people just weren't interested then. Hard to run an ATM business when you've got to rely on interest though. I thought that airport one was the best: location, highest traffic, etc.

[Lucius]

Yeah, I think in US, working with US people before, it's actually quite hard for many apparently to get their hands on Bitcoin. Localbitcoin, which is the easiest p2p, doesn't work for you unless you want to go to jail. And not everyone can get on a Coinbase or Gemini account, apparently. So the easiest is ATMs, also to cash out BTC.

I didn't think that way, but the truth is that some US federal states have strange laws that make it impossible for some large CEXs to operate in them, but it is still a small number of federal states that should not affect such a large number of crypto ATMs in the US. It would be interesting to see the ratio of bought/sold at all those ATMs.

Where I'm from that's definitely the case (business not making profit) but here where I live now I got the impression they are actually quite popular, just around pre Covid was a bad time to dismantle running up to the bull and ATH. The Schiphol one also launched in the last "winter" so perhaps people just weren't interested then. Hard to run an ATM business when you've got to rely on interest though. I thought that airport one was the best: location, highest traffic, etc.

It makes sense because a lot of people pass there, but with the fact that many do not know what Bitcoin is, the question is how many people are psychologically ready to use such devices in airports? If you go on vacation or return home after a long time, you are more focused on other things than Bitcoin, at least it makes sense to me.