Bitcoin’s ecosystem, in addition to its exchange rate and market capitalization, had quite a tumultuous March due to escalating hostilities between proponents and developers of the 'Segregated Witness’ and ‘Emergent Consensus’ upgrade proposals.
However, the temporary instability has not dissuaded digital currency entrepreneurs from continuing to invest capital in Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs).
Data compiled by CoinAtmRadar, which keeps track of a variety of metrics on the cryptocurrency ATM industry, shows that 53 new BTMs were installed in various countries in March, bringing the total number of teller machines to 1097!
While in Australia, FindBitcoinATM says that 20 BTC ATMs are currently operating on the continent.
Last month’s figure did not exceed February’s record of 86 new BTMs, or the previous records in November and August of 2016, but it shows a healthy expansion of Bitcoin’s infrastructure across the globe.
Additionally, CoinAtmRadar charts show that the top three ATM manufacturers - Genesis Coin (513 ATMs online), Lamassu (199 ATMs online) and General Bytes (184 ATMs online) - hold a large share (81.6%) of the Bitcoin ATM market:
While fees on most online digital currency exchanges are under 0.5%, BTM users are subject to an 8.03% fee on average, “The rate is calculated based on 805 machines supporting buy operations, and 312 ATMs supporting sell operations.,” says CoinAtmRadar.
BTM photo by Dion Hinchcliffe
