U.S. based company, Athena, intends to supply El Salvadorians with 1500 Bitcoin Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), a company representative has confirmed. The Chicago headquartered firm plans to invest more than $1 million to install cryptocurrency ATMs, targeting regions where residents receive remittances from abroad. Along with installing the new machines it will also hire staff and open an office to carry out operations in El Salvador.
What does Athena do?
Athena Bitcoin grants users access to the cryptocurrency world. The company operates Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency ATMs throughout the US, Colombia, Argentina and El Salvador.
Athena currently operates just two ATMs of this type in El Salvador, one at El Zonte beach as part of an experiment called “Bitcoin Beach” aimed at making the town one of the world’s first crypto economies, and the other in El Tunco, according to CNN.
READ: BTC could completely collapse the economy of El Salvador – Steve Hanke
On June 17, Athena posted about its plans to expand in the country in the wake of lawmakers passing a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender. The company tagged the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, asking if a thousand machines would be enough. He responded he had set his target on a larger figure.
Athena’s director for Latin America, Matias Goldenhörn, stated that the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, had “presented us with a tough challenge of 1,500 ATMs, we will go for that, but in phases. We are a private company and we want to ensure that our development in the country is sustainable.”
READ: World Bank refuses to assist El Salvador with Bitcoin integration
Goldenhörn also stated that the business model is likely to be different from that in the U.S., which currently has a total of 19,325 BTC ATMs according to Coinatmradar. He stated, “Initially we are going to bring dozens of machines, (we’ll) test what the business model is like in El Salvador, which will probably be different than in the United States.”
What this means for El Salvador
Athena has stated that the rollout will start small, trialling a few dozen machines to establish a business model. This effort is to help drive the use of Bitcoin as a means of payment in the wake of the country passing Bitcoin into law as legal tender. This rollout will help with mass adoption and it will also help the growth of the use of Bitcoin within El Salvador.
READ: There are now over 8000 BTC ATMs around the world, including in Nigeria
However, El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption plan has already experienced pushback from the World Bank, which refused to assist the country in its transition, citing “the environmental and transparency shortcomings” associated with the digital asset, and a minority party that described the bill passed into law as unconstitutional and harmful to the country.
