Bitcoin ATM Installations to Slow in Early 2022 for First Time in History

Over the past six months, Bitcoin (BTC) has recorded many milestones — mainstream adoption in El Salvador, an all-time high of $69,000, and an unprecedented network hash rate. However, global Bitcoin ATM installations slowed for the first time in history in the first two months compared to the previous year.

According to Coin ATM Radar, the first two months saw a historic year-over-year increase in Bitcoin ATM installations. However, this trend was broken this year.

In January and February 2022 alone, a total of 1,817 crypto ATMs were installed globally. During the same period last year, 2,435 crypto ATMs were installed, an increase of 618 compared to this year.

In 2020, only 760 ATMs were installed during this time period, which is more than the 250 ATMs installed in 2019.

One of the main reasons for the short-term slowdown can be attributed to the lack of participation from new jurisdictions. For example, in 2022, 1,689 new encrypted ATMs will be added in the United States alone, accounting for 93% of the total encrypted ATM installations in the world.

On the other hand, the number of Bitcoin ATMs in Europe decreased by 1 to 1,397 in the first two months. At the time of writing, North America has 34,284 ATMs, accounting for more than 95% of the total crypto ATM installations.

A total of 36,067 ATMs are currently installed. Despite a slow start to the year, crypto ATM installations are expected to grow as jurisdictions such as El Salvador plan to deploy 1,500 bitcoin ATMs.

Unless more governments step up their efforts to adopt cryptocurrencies, it will be difficult for ATM installations to maintain an upward trajectory as existing cryptocurrency-friendly countries reach saturation in installing new cryptocurrency and bitcoin ATMs.

One of the immediate positive effects of Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador has been a sudden surge in tourism. Since the passage of the bitcoin law in September 2021, the country's tourism industry has soared by more than 30%, El Salvador's Tourism Minister Morena Valdez said on Feb. 22.

As Cointelegraph reported, Valdez said that El Salvador’s tourism growth exceeded government expectations, reaching 1.4 million tourists instead of 1.1 million, adding:

“We expected to have $800,000 in foreign exchange, but we got over $1.4 billion in foreign exchange”