, the company that launched the first U.S. bitcoin ATM, will expand into 90 retail locations in Arizona and Nevada, according to a statement made Wednesday.
With this move LibertyX now operates more than 1,000 so-called bitcoin ATMs across the country. The latest additions are set up in AMPM, ARCO and Chevron gas stations, as well as select Family Dollar stores.
A partnership with Desert ATM, a non-bank ATM service provider, will enable street-level access bitcoin through user’s debit cards. Chris Yim, CEO of LibertyX, said the convenience and simplicity of bitcoin ATMs removes some of the hurdles to onboarding consumers to cryptocurrencies.
This is not the first milestone the company has passed. In 2014, the company launched the first crypto ATM in America in Boston's South Station. In 2016, it hired the first bitcoin cashier. In 2019, it became the first to enable debit card transactions on traditional, non-bank ATMs, without a hardware upgrade.
"It was a natural evolution of what we started almost 5 years ago," said Yim, speaking about the most recent advancement. "Our goal is to make bitcoin available on every block in America."
While LibertyX offered in-person cashier services in the southwest before, this move is the first time the company is integrating with Genmega machines in Arizona and Nevada.
Genmega operates "approximately half" of the non-bank retail ATMs that would be compatible with the crypto-transaction enabling software upgrade LibertyX designed. "There are over 100,000 non-bank ATMs in the US and we hope consumers can buy LibertyX bitcoin from all of them," Yim said.
Transaction limits are set at $3,000 worth of bitcoin per day, for customers that pass the KYC requirements.
In the past, Desert ATM had attempted to operate their own crypto machines, but found LibertyX had the experience to roll out the feature effectively, according to the company announcement.
“We’re thrilled with the demand and enthusiasm we’ve seen from ATM operators who have been dying for a scalable, compliant, and capital-efficient bitcoin solution,” said Yim, in a statement. "There are not many crypto companies still around from 2014 and we are proud not only to have survived, but thrived over the years. We have grown from that 1 ATM in Boston's South Station in 2014 to thousands of retail locations nationwide today.
In June, bitcoin ATM competitor DigitalMint expanded to 20 locations in Arizona and Nevada.
Bitcoin ATM photo via CoinDesk archives