According to data from Coin ATM Radar, six years after installing the first Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver, Canada, the number of global cryptocurrency ATMs has finally exceeded 5,000. At present, the number of Bitcoin ATMs is 5006, and an average of nearly 6 new ones have been added in the past 60 days.
The United States is far ahead in terms of country distribution, with more than 3,200 Bitcoin ATMs, accounting for about 64% of the world’s total. Canada, which installed the first Bitcoin ATM, ranked second, with more than 680 installed.
Together with Mexico and other countries in the region, North America currently has more than 74% of the world’s bitcoin ATMs, which means that there is still a lot of work to be done in the rest of the world.
Interestingly, the Bitcoin ATM installed in the months after the cryptocurrency price plummeted in December 2017 exceeded the total number of installations in the previous four years. Since January 2018, more than 3,000 cryptocurrency ATMs have been installed, accounting for 60% of the current total.
According to the manufacturer’s data, the largest number is General Bytes (1550 units), followed by Genesis Coin (1497 units) and Lamassu (439 units). Robocoin, the first Bitcoin ATM to launch, closed its operations three years ago.
Although the current cryptocurrency market has grown considerably compared to the previous one, Bitcoin ATM still faces many regulatory obstacles. The Australian Taxation Office says Bitcoin ATM is “the most common form of fraud payment.”
India’s first Bitcoin ATM was seized by the police, and the founder of the company was arrested for not complying with regulatory requirements. In September last year, according to an order issued by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Russian police seized 22 cryptocurrency ATMs. These devices are suspected of being used for illegal financial activities. Earlier this month, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart filed a ban on the use of cryptocurrency ATMs on the grounds that they would be used for money laundering and encryption fraud.
