El Salvador, the first country to legalize Bitcoin (BTC), is down another spot in total crypto ATM installations, as Australia registers 216 ATMs entering the year 2023.
As part of El Salvador’s push to establish Bitcoin as legal tender, President Nayib Bukele had decided to install more than 200 crypto ATMs across the country. While this move made El Salvador the third-largest crypto ATM hub at the time after the United States and Canada in September 2021, Spain and Australia surpassed the Central American country’s number of ATMs in 2022.
In October 2022, Cointelegraph reported that Spain became the third largest crypto ATM hub after installing 215 crypto ATMs. However, Spain continued with its installation campaign and is home to 226 crypto ATMs at the time of writing. El Salvador’s position as the fourth largest crypto ATM hub was short-lived, as Australia stepped up its game in the following months.
In the last three months of 2022, Australia implemented 99 crypto ATMs, data from CoinATMRadar confirms. As of January 1, 2023, Australia registered 219 active crypto ATMs, dwarfing El Salvador by 7 ATMs at the time of writing.
Australia accounts for 0.6% of global crypto ATM installations and, at this rate, is well positioned to take over Asia’s crypto ATM numbers of 312 ATMs. The total number of crypto ATMs worldwide is 38,602, of which 6,071 were installed in 2022 alone.
Related: Florida Best Prepared US State for Widespread Cryptocurrency Adoption: Research
Nigeria’s push to mandate adoption of an internal central bank digital currency (CBDC), eNaira, forced the government to limit ATM cash withdrawals to $225 (100,000 Naira) per week.
“Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to carry out their banking transactions,” said Haruna Mustafa, director of banking supervision, in announcing the bell.
