In this month of May the number of Bitcoin ATMs in the USA has decreased.
This is a real news, because it was in August of last year that they were constantly on the rise.
Summary
The variations of Bitcoin ATMs in the USA
The peak number of Bitcoin ATMs in the USA occurred in August two years ago, when they exceeded 34,600.
Starting from January 2023, however, there was a sharp decline, ending only in July of the same year when they had dropped below 26,900.
Da notare che questo livello in realtà era ancora piuttosto alto, perchè sebbene dal picco dell’anno prima erano spariti più di 7.700 ATM Bitcoin, rimanevano comunque aumentati di ben 20.000 unità dall’inizio dell’ultima grande bullrun.
Moreover, compared to 2019 they had almost increased tenfold.
Therefore, the decline of 2023 was not actually particularly significant, so much so that still today more than 80% of these automatic teller machines in the world are concentrated on US soil.
Starting from August 2023, however, there has been a sort of rebound, that is, Bitcoin ATMs in the USA had returned to grow.
In the month of September alone, they increased by almost a thousand units, and the following month they still increased by more than 800.
Insomma, nel giro di pochi mesi erano tornati ad essere più di 29.000, ed a marzo di quest’anno sono tornati anche sopra i 30.000.
The recent drop in Bitcoin ATMs in the USA
This year, after four consecutive months of growth, in May just over 300 have been closed.
It would almost seem like a reversal of trend, since in April they had increased by 470 units, and in March by more than 580 units.
Overall, there are still more than 30,000 Bitcoin ATMs in the USA, but by the end of April they had also risen above 31,000 units.
The causes of this decline are not precisely known, so it is not even possible to understand if it is a momentary decline or a real trend reversal.
However, what is clear is that in the USA authorities have closed some of these automatic bullion machines because they were involved to varying degrees in fraudulent or illicit activities. However, it does not appear that any of the major Bitcoin ATM operators in the USA have had serious trouble with authorities, so it would seem to be only a temporary bearish trend.
The rest of the world
Things, instead, are going differently in the rest of the world.
Indeed, although in Canada the Bitcoin ATMs in May decreased by over 8 units, in Europe they increased by 4 units.
It should be noted, however, that the USA and Canada control more than 90% of this market, so what happens in the rest of the world from this point of view remains marginal.
Indeed, taking into account what is happening worldwide, in May the reduction was of 282 units, and this means that if in USA and Canada the overall reduction was of 310 units, in the rest of the world Bitcoin ATMs have increased by 28 units.
At this moment 37,621 crypto ATMs are currently mapped around the world, with 30,960 in the USA, 2,989 in Canada, 1,624 in Europe, 1,047 in Spain, and the remaining 1,001 in the rest of the world.
The decrease in May is therefore concentrated almost exclusively in USA and Canada, but comes after nine consecutive months of recovery.
The crypto ATMs
Crypto ATMs are primarily used to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in cash, that is, with paper bills.
The fact is that they are the only safe way to carry out this type of cash trading, since obviously banknotes cannot be used on online exchanges, and other systems are not without risk.
For this very reason, in many States the verification of identity for users of crypto ATM has been made mandatory, and this has led to a significant reduction in 2022/2023, as at that point several automatic machines were found to be non-compliant with the new rules.
However, unlike what is commonly believed, these automatic teller machines are rarely used by users for speculative purposes.
In fact, according to what the largest crypto ATM operator in the USA, Bitcoin Depot, has stated, the majority of their users use the ATMs for non-speculative purposes, such as money transfers, international remittances, and online purchases.
After all, for those who have banknotes and want to send them abroad, crypto ATMs can be a very fast and effective solution, with costs that can be much lower than the classic alternatives.
Those who speculate on cryptocurrencies prefer to use online exchanges, and above all digital money.
This is also confirmed by the fact that the number of crypto ATMs from 2022 to date does not vary much with the fluctuation of the crypto market, because even though there was a decline in 2022, and a recovery in the second half of 2023, the variations in the number of crypto ATMs are minimal compared to the much broader fluctuations of the crypto markets.
