El Salvador, the first nation to legalize Bitcoin $16,712, has fallen another position in the list of countries with the most crypto ATMs installed as Australia reports 216 ATMs as we approach 2023.
President Nayib Bukele made the decision to place more than 200 cryptocurrency ATMs all across El Salvador as part of the country’s effort to make Bitcoin a legal cash. El Salvador was at the time, in September 2021, the third-largest hub for crypto ATMs after the United States and Canada, but in 2022, Spain and Australia passed El Salvador in terms of the number of ATMs.
Spain installed 215 crypto ATMs, according to Cointelegraph, making it the third-largest center for crypto ATMs. However, Spain kept up its installation campaign and, as of this writing, has 226 crypto ATMs. El Salvador’s reign as the fourth-largest center for crypto ATMs was brief because Australia improved during the ensuing months.
According to CoinATMRadar data, Australia installed 99 cryptocurrency ATMs in the final three months of 2022. Australia had 219 active crypto ATMs as of January 1, 2023, outnumbering El Salvador by 7 ATMs as of this writing.
At this rate, Asia’s 312 crypto ATMs, which make up 0.6% of all installations worldwide, might be surpassed by Australia’s 0.6% share. There are currently 38,602 crypto ATMs operating worldwide, 6,071 of which were set up in 2022.
The government of Nigeria was compelled to cap ATM cash withdrawals to $225 (100,000 naira) every week as a result of the country’s efforts to compel the adoption of its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), known as eNaira.
The director of banking supervision, Haruna Mustafa, announced the initiative by saying, “Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (online banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to complete their banking activities.”