El Salvador, the first country to legalize Bitcoin (BTC), has been pushed down elsewhere in total crypto ATM installations as Australia recorded 216 ATMs entering 2023.
As part of El Salvador’s drive to establish Bitcoin as legal tender, President Nayib Bukele has decided to install over 200 crypto ATMs throughout the country. While this move makes El Salvador the third largest crypto ATM hub at the time after the United States and Canada in September 2021, Spain and Australia will exceed the number of Central American countries’ ATMs in 2022.
In October 2022, Cointelegraph reported that Spain became the third largest crypto ATM hub after installing 215 crypto ATMs. However, Spain continues its installation drive and is home to 226 crypto ATMs at the time of writing. El Salvador’s position as the fourth largest crypto ATM hub did not last long as Australia upped its game in the following months.
In the last three months of 2022, Australia deployed 99 crypto ATMs, confirms data from CoinATMRadar. As of January 1, 2023, Australia recorded 219 active crypto ATMs, surpassing El Salvador with 7 ATMs at the time of writing.
Australia represents 0.6% of global crypto ATM installations and, at this rate, is well positioned to take over Asia’s crypto ATM numbers, which stands at 312 ATMs. The number of crypto ATMs worldwide is 38,602, of which 6,071 ATMs were installed in 2022 alone.
related: Florida is the most prepared US state for widespread crypto adoption: Research
Nigeria’s drive to impose the adoption of the central bank’s in-house digital currency (CBDC) – eNaira – forced the government to limit ATM cash withdrawals to $225 (100,000 naira) a week.
“Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking app, USSD, card/POS, eNaira, etc.) to carry out banking transactions,” noted Haruna Mustafa, director of banking supervision, when announcing the drive.