Stepping into the year 2023, Australia became the 4th largest crypto ATM hub with a total record 216 crypto ATM installations. With the latest number of 216 crypto ATMs, Australia overtakes El Salvador, the first country in the world that make Bitcoin a legal tender in the country, leaving it behind in the race of adopting the cryptocurrency and its related products.
In 2021, as part of El Salvador’s drive to establish Bitcoin as a legal tender, the country’s President Nayib Bukele had planned to install over 200 crypto ATMs across the country. At that time, this move from the president worked and made El Salvador the third largest crypto ATM hub after the United States and Canada. However, in 2022, one European country Spain and another Australia overtook El Salvador, a Central American country, in the race of installing crypto ATMs.
In October 2022, according to a report from Cointelegraph, after it installed around 215 crypto ATMs in the country, Spain became the third-largest crypto ATM hub. Since then, Spain continued its installation drive and is currently home to 226 crypto ATMs. After Spain, Australia took El Salvador’s position as the fourth-largest crypto ATM hub by stepping up its game and installing more ATMs over the following months.
According to data from CoinATMRadar, in the last three months of 2022, Australia deployed around 99 crypto ATMs. As of today, the 1st of January 2023, Australia is currently the home to 219 active crypto ATMs. While El Salvador is only 7 ATMs behind to overtake the country. At this rate, Australia represents 0.6% of global crypto ATM installations and is currently in a well-position to overtake Asia’s crypto ATM numbers, which is around 312 ATMs. However, the total number of installed crypto ATMs worldwide is around 38,602, from which more than 6,070 ATMs were installed in 2022 alone.
