Cryptocurrencies’ rising popularity has seen the use of crypto ATM’s grow as a consequence, however, this has recently stagnated according to cryptomonday. The blockchain community found that at the beginning of the year, the net change dropped by 14.3 per cent to 1,687 ATMs from December 2021’s high of 1,969 ATMs, and is yet to recover as of April 2022.
Crypto ATMs were established in 2014. They serve an essential purpose for the Bitcoin economy. The ATMs help the users access and deposit their Bitcoin holdings against the corresponding cash reserves. When they were introduced, there were only 301 such ATMs across the globe; now over 500 are being installed on a monthly basis.
1,817 crypto ATMs were installed globally in the first two months of 2022. Last year saw 2,435 crypto ATM installations during the same period. It was accelerated by El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender.
Since this year began, the trend has been going downwards, with figures for February and March dropping to 757 ATMs and 739 ATMs, respectively.
Stringent regulations on the crypto market
Cryptomonday believes that the stagnation may have resulted from regulators’ hesitance to adopt the Bitcoin systems. The trend coincides with the crypto market slowdown and tightening regulatory framework around virtual digital assets.
Strict regulations have impacted numbers: some examples include the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) shut down all crypto ATMs in the country and the Belgium government who also mandated crypto exchanges and wallet providers, including ATM operators, to register with the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA).
Crypto ATMs Global players
The United States tops the chart with the most number of ATMs at 32,973. Canada comes in second place with 2,443 locations. Spain and El Salvador come third and fourth with 229 and 204 locations respectively.
El Salvador hosts 205 Chivo-branded machines, amounting to roughly 54 per cent of all crypto ATMs in Latin America, highlighting the highly untapped market for crypto ATMs.
Prospects for global crypto ATMs
As regulations slow down crypto ATM additions in other regions, Mexican Senator Indira Kempis recently announced the launch of the new ATM in the Senate building in Mexico. The total locations of ATMs in the North American jurisdiction now stands at 14.
Despite this global stagnation, the crypto ATM market still has a lot of potential because of the rising number of young crypto adopters. The global crypto ATM market is projected to reach $3557.05millon by 2030.
