Bitcoin Depot, the world’s largest provider of Bitcoin ATMs, debuted on Nasdaq on Monday. After several months of planning, the company became the first of its kind to trade on a major US stock exchange.
The price exceeded $6.60 in trading on Monday, before reversing to $3.34 and settling there. The debut came on the heels of an $885 million merger with Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), GSR II Meteora (GSRM). The emergence of Bitcoin and GSRM was in He talks about integration Since at least August 2022.
Bitcoin Depot currently operates more than 7,000 cryptocurrency ATMs
Brandon Mintz, CEO and founder of Bitcoin Depot, called the move an “important milestone” for the company. Bitcoin Depot currently has machines in more than 7,000 kiosk locations in 47 US states and nine Canadian provinces.
Bitcoin Depot is one of the few companies in the crypto sector that is publicly traded. Coinbase, the world’s second largest crypto exchange, and MicroStrategy Inc. , a software company with significant holdings of Bitcoin, are two other companies.
Bitcoin ATMs are very similar to cash ATMs, where people just use the terminals to buy Bitcoin or, sometimes, another cryptocurrency. It enables a simplified way to convert fiat currencies into digital assets.
However, their use has come under scrutiny by law enforcement in recent years. Mostly thanks to money laundering concerns and cases of theft. As recently as March, bad actors stole $1.5 million in BTC in an incident involving a General Bytes ATM.
Money laundering risks
In the UK, police carried out several raids on addresses operating illegal Bitcoin ATMs, after officials banned their use there completely in March 2022. The head of economic crime for Yorkshire and the Humber said in a statement on May 5 that the ATMs were “ a key component in facilitating money laundering.
As of this writing, there are only 10 machines in operation across the entire UK.
Other countries have not been so cruel. Currently, the country with the largest number of crypto ATMs is the United States, with 30,997, according to Coin ATM Radar.
Canada, Australia and Spain rank second, third and fourth, respectively. However, India, with a population of over 1.4 billion, has only two stations, both of which are in New Delhi. Japan, a country of 126 million people, has only three.
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