Bitcoin ATM installations have fallen 89% worldwide in 2022, only to make a swift recovery in June, where it reversed a downward trajectory of five consecutive months.
May saw its lowest number of installations ever, 205 ATMs. June saw more than 882 installations in the first half of the month alone.
Looking at the bigger picture, the ATM industry is on a growth path for over a decade. With a few hundred machines just a few years back, today tens of thousands are operating. In 2020 and 2021 installations increased steadily due to a friendlier regulatory landscape.
The highest growth rates and record number of installations happened in 2021, with 1971 ATMs installed during the month of December.
A notable case was El Salvador, where the use of bitcoin as legal tender led to an increase in ATM installations over the past year. The U.S. company Athena has shipped in thousands of machines to support the country’s plan to implement full Bitcoin adoption.
According to Coin ATM Radar’s measurement scale, approximately 23 ATMs per day are currently being installed worldwide.
ATMs are crucial to the bitcoin economy, as they allow users to easily exchange their fiat currencies for bitcoin and vice versa.
Currently, globally, there are approximately 38,000 ATMs installed and fully operational.
The country with the largest number of ATMs is the United States, which currently represents 87% of the total ATM network, in other words, 33,403 ATMs where bitcoin can be bought or sold. Bitcoin ATMs contribute to bitcoin adoption and hyperbitcoinization as they help to exchange paper banknotes into satoshis.
The uprising industry facilitates remittance transactions and international transfers. Bitcoin ATMs are critical for financial inclusion and an essential piece of a country’s financial infrastructure.
With tens of millions of Bitcoin users worldwide, Bitcoin ATMs also service a growing customer segment of people who travel with bitcoin internationally.
After accepting bitcoin as legal tender, according to reports, tourism in El Salvador has increased by 30%.
Following bitcoin’s recent price decline, the deputy of the Republic of El Salvador, Dania Gonzalez, reported the country’s intention to buy more bitcoin.
“What Nayib Bukele did was to buy bitcoin and take advantage at a strategic moment,” Gonzalez said.
According to Gonzalez, the strategy of Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, has already proven successful in the past with the creation of a veterinary hospital and a public school. Both ventures were made possible by calculated investments in BTC.
