Take a look at a major U.S. city near you, and you just might see a vending machine that spits out Bitcoins (or, for those without an enormous cash flow, pieces of one of these digital coins.)
Reporting today from Elsa Saikkonen at Bitcoinist today shows how cities like Chicago and Philadelphia are seeing Bitcoin ATMs pop up in popular neighborhoods all over the city – as Saikkonen says – “hidden in plain sight” in places like tourist destinations and quickly gentrifying neighborhoods.
Saikkonen also mentions the partnership between Coinstar and Bitcoin parties to offer Bitcoin integration with these familiar in-store money processing centers that take your old spare change and make it into handy portable cash credit.
But today’s news about ATMs comes as Bitcoin deflates its way down to right around $3400 – a profoundly low when balanced against monthly, quarterly and yearly estimates.
For some time now, traders have been watching Bitcoin slowly sink and wondering where the bottom is. Will Bitcoin go even lower?
And will these ATM makers take a sign from the markets and back off of installing these physical machines in U.S. neighborhoods?
“The developments from Bitcoin ATM companies and Coinstar are undeniably positive,” Saikkonen writes. “The United States currently houses more than 3000 machines by itself — far more than any other country in the world — despite the year-long-and-counting market downturn.”
The U.S. isn’t the only country with rapid Bitcoin ATM adoption. Last November, another Bitcoinist writer, John Norsted, cheronicled the emergence of these kiosks worldwide.
“Numerous signs of maturity can be noted across the cryptocurrency industry,” Norsted wrote at the time. “A growing number of Bitcoin ATMs is making their mark on the world. This month, the number is expected to surpass the 4,000 milestone .. One peculiar trend is how operators are not just focusing on Bitcoin. Over six in ten machines support altcoins in various degrees. Litecoin is the most popular altcoin offering, followed by Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. Support for Dash, Monero, Dogecoin, and ZCash also appears to be on the rise.”
Look for coin ATMs to help crypto become more popular everywhere – and think about this as you make moves in the crypto trading market.
