9 years after the first Bitcoin ATM, there are now 38,804 globally
On October 29, 2013, a coffee shop in downtown Vancouver, Canada opened what is believed to be the world’s first publicly available Bitcoin (BTC) automated teller machine (ATM) powered by Robocoin.
The crypto ATM saw 348 transactions and $100,000 transactions in its first week of operation.
As of October 30, 2022 – nine years and one day after – Robocoin has ceased operations and the first crypto ATM has likely been removed or replaced, but crypto ATMs have continued to increase in number with 38,804 cryptocurrency ATMs in existence today, according to Mynt ATM Radar.
The global hub for crypto ATMs has since shifted, with the US now housing nearly 88% of the world’s supply of crypto ATMs and taking credit for 90% of all newly installed ATMs in recent months.
In October alone, 129 of the world’s newly installed ATMs were located in the US out of a total of 205.
Canada, home to the first crypto-ATM, has only seen that number creep to 566 after nine years, though it still ranks second at 6.6% of the total, according to Coin ATM Radar data.
Meanwhile, Spain became the third largest crypto ATM center on October 22 with a 0.6% share of 215 ATMs.
A July report from Research and Markets estimates that the crypto-ATM space is now valued at $46.4 million, which will grow more than 10-fold to $472 million by 2027, driven by remittances and increased crypto-ATM installations.
However, like many crypto-related products, crypto ATM installations have been challenged this year as a result of the crypto bear market.
Crypto ATM installations declined between January and May before a slight recovery between June and August, but in September net crypto ATMs fell globally for the first time ever after 459 machines were removed from the global network.
Related: How Bitcoin ATMs are doing in Greece during a record tourist season
Bitcoin remains the most popular cryptocurrency transacted across crypto-enabled ATMs with nearly 100% support for BTC transactions per Coin ATM Radar. However, other cryptos also appear to be supported across the network.
Litecoin (LTC) is popular with almost 81% of ATMs supporting the crypto, and Ether (ETH) follows closely at almost 74%, Dogecoin (DOGE) is in fourth place with just under 40% supporting the so-called memecoin.
In early October, US authorities warned that crypto-ATMs were emerging as a popular method for fraudsters to receive value and fraud victims most often in pork butchering scams where the attacker poses as a potential romantic partner, gains trust and asks the victim to send them money, or in some cases, cryptocurrency.
