Chicago Drives Adoption With More Bitcoin ATMs

On Lake Michigan is one of the biggest cities in the United States and thanks to its stunning skyline and bold architecture a popular tourist destination. The city of Chicago is one that has always been involved heavily in finance and so with this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Illinois city is embracing the coming Bitcoin and cryptocurrency revolution.

The city is already home to the relatively large volume of Bitcoin ATMs and they are about to get a whole lot more. This is thanks to Lux Vending. The decision to make the move into Chicago was due to its higher than average cryptocurrency adoption rates.

As reported by NewsBTC, the city of Chicago is on the verge of receiving an additional thirty cryptocurrency ATMs which will all be provided by Lux Vending under the brand, Bitcoin Depot.

The new crypto ATMs will enable customers to trade their fiat money for Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. They will join an ever-growing number of such terminals in the city. Bitcoin Depot isn’t the only one providing the Illinois city with ATMs. There are a few other startups that have already set up shop in the city.

Some of the startups include Red Leaf Chicago who owns 60 of the city’s machines. “This represents 30% of their 200 machines currently operational across 21 states.” Another startup is Athena Bitcoin which owns three of the ATMs in the city but has since set its crosshairs aimed at bigger things on a global scale.

Even though they haven’t entered the city with as much force as the others, the CEO of Athena Bitcoin, Eric Gravengaard said that he can see why the location was popular due to its “large degree of adoption”.

“The adoption that Gravengaard is referring to is largely driven by Chicago’s vibrant history with the financial industry.” With this, the city has embraced cryptocurrency too. Such adoption is particularly evidenced by the fact that local traditional exchange firms CBOE Global Markets and the CME Group both launched the United States first Bitcoin futures contracts late in 2017 - during the bull run which sent Bitcoin to highs of $20,000.

This leads to the question of whether this could all push adoption even more? Even though Bitcoin ATMs are definitely a boost for the industry, the adoption value might be as good as you think. “This is because of the fees they charge. Bitcoin Depot machines reportedly require users to pay between ten and twenty percent of the total amount of dollars they wish to exchange for Bitcoin. Evidently, this is a large problem and will limit the use of such machines.”

What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!