Australia surpasses El Salvador to become the fourth biggest crypto ATM hub in the world
The status of El Salvador as the fourth-largest crypto ATM centre was short-lived as Australia ramped up its game in the subsequent months.
El Salvador, the first nation to adopt Bitcoin, has fallen another place in the total number of crypto ATM installations, as Australia recorded 216 ATMs as of the beginning of 2023.
As part of El Salvador’s initiative to recognise Bitcoin as legal cash, President Nayib Bukele chose to instal more than 200 cryptocurrency ATMs. In September 2021, this action gave El Salvador the third biggest crypto ATM hub after the United States and Canada. However, in 2022, Spain and Australia surpassed El Salvador’s ATM count.
Spain became the third-largest crypto ATM hub in October 2022, according to Cointelegraph, after deploying 215 crypto ATMs. At the time of writing, 226 crypto ATMs were operational in Spain, which maintained its installation push. The status of El Salvador as the fourth-largest crypto ATM centre was short-lived as Australia ramped up its game in the subsequent months.
According to CoinATMRadar data, Australia installed 99 cryptocurrency ATMs in the last three months of 2022. Australia registered 219 operational crypto ATMs as of January 1, 2023, surpassing El Salvador by 7 ATMs at the time of writing.
Australia represents 0.6% of all crypto ATM installations worldwide and, at its current pace, is well-positioned to surpass Asia’s 312 crypto ATMs. The total number of cryptocurrency ATMs in the world is 38,602, with 6,071 ATMs established in 2022 alone.
Nigeria’s efforts to mandate the adoption of an internal central bank digital currency (CBDC) — eNaira — compelled the government to restrict weekly ATM cash withdrawals to $225 (100,000 naira).
“Customers should be encouraged to undertake their financial transactions through alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking applications, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.),” said Haruna Mustafa, the director of banking supervision, while introducing the initiative.
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