Walmart Starts Bitcoin ($BTC) ATM Hosting Services, Months After Litecoin ($LTC) Fiasco
Walmart, the largest retail giant in the world has reportedly started testing Bitcoin ATM hosting services, as per a report from Coindesk. Walmart has quietly partnered with crypto ATM technology provider Coinme and offering $BTC to customers via 200 of its Coinstar kiosks.
“Coinstar, in partnership with Coinme, has launched a pilot that allows its customers to use cash to purchase bitcoin,” Walmart communications director Molly Blakeman said.“There are 200 Coinstar kiosks located inside Walmart stores across the United States that are part of this pilot.”
The news comes within months of the Litecoin ($LTC) fiasco when a fake Walmart press release claiming to accept $LTC as payment deceived most of the leading news agencies and even Litecoin. At the time many Bitcoin proponents have claimed that it was fake news, given why would world’s largest retail company partner with LTC when there is BTC is adopted left-right and center.
Bitcoin ATMs On the Rise
Bitcoin ATMs have continued to surge in adoption as they touched new highs in 2021. The growth of Bitcoin ATM adoption across the world indicates the rising popularity of the top cryptocurrency among the common public.
The US tops the list of countries with the highest share of Bitcoin ATMs close to 87% of the total ATMs installed across the world. Now that Walmart is testing with 200 ATMs, the number could only grow further once the company decides to install more machines across its 4,700 stores.
Apart from the US, El Salvador, the first nation to make Bitcoin a legal tender has also installed over 200 Bitcoin ATMs for people’s convenience and ease of transactions. These ATMs are already quite popular and see millions in remittance each day as per Nayib Bukele, the president of the country. El Salvador is the third biggest host of BTMs across the world.
