The first Bitcoin ATM in El Salvador is now live

Athena Bitcoin expands to El Salvador, bringing the country its first crypto ATM in La Libertad. It enables the purchase and sale of Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

2 min read

Feb 13, 2020

The Café Cocoa shop in the city of La Libertad is now the first location in El Salvador with a Bitcoin ATM. The ATM also allows people visiting the store in the tourist area of El Zonte beach to buy and sell Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

The crypto ATM is operated by the Chicago-based Athena Bitcoin, which currently operates nearly 100 Bitcoin ATMs across the United States and South America. The system allows users to purchase the digital tokens without the need for a bank account or credit card.

A purchase can be made in just 90 seconds using a mobile Bitcoin wallet, although there are some limits: $2,950 per purchase transaction, $2,000 per sale transaction, and a maximum daily total of $9,900. Exchanges are made through the company's peer-to-peer exchanges, BitQuick and MercadoAthena.

The ATM is a sign of Athena's desire to expand the existing base of crypto users. "Athena Bitcoin supports the use of Bitcoin as a currency to improve the lives of people everywhere. Our network of Athena Bitcoin ATM is continuing to expand in the US and Latin America," Athena Bitcoin CEO and co-founder Eric Gravengaard told Decrypt.

The machine installed in the shop is the Genesis Coin, which is the same model already in use at 2,272 locations globally and was built in the United States. The system includes the required anti-money laundering and KYC protections for identity verification and fraud prevention.

El Salvador getting its first Bitcoin ATM is yet another example of the increased demand for such products in Latin America. Recently, for example, a partnership between BBVA, Tauros, and Dash in Mexico enabled 11,000 BBVA ATMs nationwide to receive Dash cryptocurrency in exchange for fiat.

In the United States, Bitcoin ATMs are similarly on the rise: Bitcoin Depot recently surpassed 500 machines on its network, and competing ATM operator Coinsource just crossed the 600 mark.

Get crypto news straight to your inbox--

sign up for the Decrypt Daily below. (It’s free).

Get Email!

Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Charts Have Disappeared From Google Search Results

Google Search has stopped displaying price charts for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in its search results. Users can still access these charts through Google Finance. Over the weekend, Twitter users noted that searching for Bitcoin's price no longer yields a chart in the search results. In contrast, stock price searches still produce charts. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt. Google's decision has prompted discussions about the reasons behind this chan...

Pepe Holder Loses $1.4 Million in Uniswap Permit2 Phishing Attack

Uniswap Permit2 signing, which started as a tool to simplify token approvals, has now become a common attack vector in the DeFi ecosystem. A PEPE token holder became the latest victim of a phishing scam, losing $1.39 million worth of crypto after unknowingly signing a malicious Uniswap Permit2 transaction. According to cybersecurity firm ScamSniffer, the stolen assets, including Pepe (PEPE), Microstrategy (MSTR), and Apu (APU) tokens, were transferred to a new wallet just an hour after the vict...

Bitcoin Jumps, Asian Stocks Mixed as Traders Assess China’s Economic Stimulus

Bitcoin jumped to a seven-day high late Sunday evening as Asian stocks showed mixed results following China's economic stimulus measures, announced during the weekend. The crypto is trading 2.5% higher on the day to $64,300—its highest point since October 7. It follows recent stimulus promises made by the world’s second-largest economy on Saturday. China has vowed to "significantly increase" its debt to support its weakening economy but provided no details on the size of the stimulus package, le...

News

Courses

Deep Dives

Coins

Videos