By It was just under a month ago that we reported on the fact that the crypto ATM market would increase in revenue from $16 million to $114.5 million by 2023 & now according to representatives from Athena Bitcoin & Odyssey Group it seems that by the end of this year Argentina will play host to 30 Bitcoin ATMs.
Yes, that is hardly enough to increase the revenue mentioned above but it’s a great start. That number of 30 will jump up to 150 by early 2019 and ultimately up to 1500 by the end of next year.
This rapid crypto ATM adoption in South America comes at a time of an economic crisis which has seen the peso’s value, the national currency of Argentina, drop to an all-time low.
The Race Is On For BTC ATM Developers
The US-based Athena Bitcoin, a company which specializes in the creation, distribution & operation of cryptocurrency ATM’s recently launched the first crypto ATM in the country, just a month ago in Buenos Aires. 
Odyssey Group, another US-based company says that they aim to install 150 ATMs be by the end of this year with 80% of those being fully operational by early 2019. This will be the company’s first move into Latin America but Reuters has quoted the company as saying they’ve been increasingly looking to expand their activities across all of South America.
On the other hand, Athena Bitcoin already has 12 fully operational ATMs in Columbia and one in Central America in Mexico. As they move forward their plan is to expand their operations in Mexico and as far as Chile & Brazil. Currently, these ATM’s only allow consumers to conduct transactions using Bitcoin but these will be modified to accept transactions using Litecoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash said a spokesperson from the company.
As mentioned before, due to Argentina’s current inflation of their national fiat currency, this makes the country an ideal location for Bitcoin ATM’s. The peso currently has lost more than 50% of its value against the US- dollar. Charlie Bilello – the director of research at a New York-based investment advisory group known as Pension Partners, recently published his findings on the returns of crypto & fiat currencies and found that BTC has outperformed the peso as well as Venezuela’s bolivar and the Sudanese pound.
This unfortunate economic crisis in Argentina presents huge growth potential for digital currencies from Athen Bitcoins point of view:
“Today, the cryptocurrency ATMs in the world are growing exponentially. In Argentina, there were no commercial ATMs and the idea was to be the first to capture the market,” said Dante Galeazzi, Athena Bitcoin’s Argentina Operations Manager.
The Visibility of ATM’s Will Increase
While Athena Bitcoin’s ATMs will only permit crypto transactions, Odyssey Group’s ATMs will also permit traditional banking transactions and these include deposits, withdrawals, and transfers of money between accounts. Octagon, a company owned by the Odyssey Group will be in charge of operating these ATMs, and they aim to have installed up to 1600 ATMs in Argentina according to Begona Perez De Solay – general manager of Octagon.
This influx of in the number of BTC ATM’s is not just limited to countries in the Southern Hemisphere though, as many Bitcoin ATM’s are being spotted in US cities with as many as 80 being fully operational in Detroit and up to 2000 more scattered across USA.
In the coming 15 months as both Athena & Odyssey roll-out, their crypto ATM’s to more consumers around the globe, regulators & authorities will more than likely push back with claims that these ATM’s could be used in criminal activities such as money laundering.
Joe Ciccolo, the founder of BitAML, a digital currency consultancy argues that this link between money laundering and Bitcoin ATMs is an irrelevant & overrated concern going on to explain that ATM operators are able to obtain customer information through IDs or driver licenses. Finally, ATM’s can also enforce transactional controls such as daily limits per consumer and even caps on transactional denominations.
Could this adoption of crypto ATM’s be the catalyst for more sectors accepting digital currencies or will the lawmakers in certain countries fight this? Let us know your thoughts.
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