FinTech News
Bitcoin ATM Operator CoinFlip Surpasses One Million Transactions in 2020
Despite the fact that 2020 could hardly be described as a good year for the vast majority of people, it was undoubtedly a strong year for Bitcoin. In fact, even as other volatile stock market happenings have distracted some from cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and other assets have enjoyed continued prosperity so far in 2021. This has not only allowed long-time believers to see their holdings rise but has also provided several crypto-centric companies to cash in. Among the firms in this latter category is CoinFlip, which reports seeing a massive increase in demand for their Bitcoin ATMs throughout the past year.
According to a press release, CoinFlip’s Bitcoin ATMs conducted more than one million transactions last year, coupled with an average 48% increase in transaction amount. This milestone was accompanied by a 359% year over year increase in revenue as well as an expansion of the firm’s ATM network. Additionally, the company says it was able to expand from a total of 17 employees at the beginning of 2020 to a team of 160 today.
As of last month, CoinFlip now operates 1,400 Bitcoin ATMs — up from just 441 in January 2020. What’s more, the company now operates ATMs across 45 states. While the majority of these machines only allow customers to purchase Bitcoin, others enable both buying and selling of the asset. Consumers can locate their nearest Bitcoin ATM (and see whether a machine is Buy Only or not) by using a tool on the CoinFlip website.
CoinFlip’s success comes as Bitcoin reached new highs near the end of 2020, not only breaking through the long-eyed $20,000 mark but continuing to sail upward to double that as the new year began. CoinFlip’s founder and CEO Daniel Polotsky acknowledged this fact in a statement, saying, “2020 was the year Bitcoin proved all the doubters wrong and showed that the cryptocurrency market is maturing and viable.” Polotsky also looked toward the future of crypto as well as CoinFlip, remarking, “At CoinFlip, we believe cryptocurrency is a tool that can be made available to anyone, accelerating financial inclusion across the globe. By the end of 2021, our goal is to expand our network beyond North America, into international markets, enabling greater access to communities and individuals with reduced or no access to traditional banking resources.”
Although Bitcoin ATMs may have once seemed like a novelty that presented an allure of futurism without actually embodying it, the growth that CoinFlip observed in 2020 suggests that this technology is legitimizing. Even as there are now plenty of relatively easy ways for everyday consumers to purchase Bitcoin, perhaps the ATM interface will prove to be the most straightforward for some crypto newbies. With Bitcoin standing strong at levels not seen prior to this year, expect CoinFlip and others to only improve upon these metrics as 2021 rolls on.
