Bitcoin ATM number surges around the world helps normalize digital currency

The year 2019 will be known for a number of things. The prices of cryptocurrencies have made a comeback from the bear market of 2018; Facebook and other non-crypto companies announced their own digital currencies, and even banks started working on CBDCs. Not to mention China’s push towards blockchain adoption and more.

However, one thing that happened a bit under the radar was the significant surge of Bitcoin ATM number in the world. In the last 12 months, the number of crypto ATMs grew by 56%. While this does not necessarily mean that crypto adoption is surging at the same rate, it will certainly help make cryptocurrency feel normal after people start passing by ATMs every day.

According to CoinATMRadar, the number of BTC ATMs around the world was at 4,102 one year ago. These days, that number has grown to 6,387. In January 2018, the number of ATMs was three times smaller, sitting at only 2,058 of them world-wide.

The US still leads in the number of active ATMs

While there are over 6k ATMs across the world, the majority of them are in a single country — the US. In fact, around 4,221 out of the current 6.378 ATMs are located in the United States, which is almost twice as many compared to last year’s 2,296 US-based ATMs.

But, even if the number of ATMs in the US is on the rise, that is not true for a number of other countries. Austria, for example, used to have 258 Bitcoin ATMs in early 2019. These days, it has 184, meaning that it lost over 70 of them within a year.

Still. the number of ATMs is on the rise, even though there is no indication of whether or not they are actually being used. There is also the fact that they charge significant trading fees, which likely limits their usage even further.

Regardless, the very presence of machines is considered to be beneficial for the crypto industry, as they raise awareness of digital currencies, and allow people to get used to the concept of digital money.