The first Bitcoin ATM (BTM) was set up in Vancouver, Canada on October 29, 2013. Since then, thousands of other cryptocurrencies have entered the market and the digital asset industry has skyrocketed. This has led to more than 40,000 BTMs being added over the last 10 years or so. Today, several countries around the world have opened Bitcoin ATMs that citizens can use to buy, sell and send various cryptocurrencies. However, the distribution of these BTMs is not exactly uniform, with some countries dwarfing others in terms of machine count. Here’s a look at the top 5 countries with the most Bitcoin ATMs today.

United States

The United States of America has the maximum number of Bitcoin ATMs. At the time of writing the number of Bitcoin ATMs in the country stands at 33,769. That equates to roughly 86 percent of all Bitcoin ATMs in the world. However, the country also reported the most number of closed ATMs in 2022, with 188 machines taken offline last year.

Canada

Canada is the pioneer of Bitcoin ATMs. As mentioned earlier, it was the first country to open up a BTM. The machine was set up in a coffee shop in Vancouver and saw 348 transactions worth around $100,000 in its first week of operation. The company that operated that particular ATM, Robocoin, has since shut down. However, the number of crypto ATMs in the country has skyrocketed. Today, Canada has 2,657 BTMs, propelling it to the number 2 spot in terms of countries with the most crypto ATMs.

Spain

Spain is on a mission to become a leader in crypto adoption, both in Europe and across the world. Keeping with this goal, in Jan 2022, the country announced plans to add 100 new Bitcoin ATMs to existing BTM network. By Oct the same year, Spain seemed to be on track with its mission, toppling El-Salvador to become the third-largest crypto ATM hub. Currently, the country has nearly 270 Bitcoin ATMs spread across different cities. The plan is to reach 300 BTMs soon.

Australia

Just a few months earlier, Australia was ranked fifth in terms of Bitcoin ATMs. However, according to recent reports, the land down under added 99 BTMs towards the end of 2022. In doing so, Australia effectively pipped El Salvador to become the fourth-largest crypto ATM hub in the world. At the time of writing, Australia had around 240 Bitcoin ATMs spread across the country serving its rapidly expanding crypto community. The country represents 0.6 percent of the global installations of Bitcoin ATMs and is on its way to overtaking the number of Bitcoin ATMs in Asia.

El Salvador

El Salvador was the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as its legal tender. President Nayib Bukele has always been a proponent of Bitcoin and has taken several measures to turn El Salvador into a pro-BTC country. He even went as far as using geothermal energy from volcanoes to power Bitcoin mining.

Therefore, opening Bitcoin ATMs seemed to be a fundamental step towards furthering the dream of a Bitcoin-first nation. As such, in 2021, president Bukele decided to establish more than 200 BTC ATMs across the country. This put the El Salvador 3rd on the list of countries with the most BTMs. However, over the last few months, Spain and Australia have overtaken the island nation and currently, El Salvador is the fifth largest hub for crypto ATMs, with 212 machines installed across the nation.

Conclusion

There’s no denying it, 2022 was a terrible year for the crypto industry. The crypto winter caused prices to plummet and the situation was worsened by the FTX and Luna meltdowns. These circumstances could explain why the number of Bitcoin ATMs dropped in 2022.

According to data from CoinATMRadar, the number of BTMs fell by 2.05 percent, with 796 crypto ATMs being pulled off the global network between Jan and September 2022. Moreover, only 94 new BTMs were added between July and the end of 2022. However, 2023 is off to a bright start and could signal a turnaround for the cryptoverse. This could result in more BTMs being added in the coming months.