Athena plans to bring Bitcoin ATMs to El Salvador this is a great move seeing it had also installed the first Bitcoin ATM that operates with dollars in Argentina
According to a company official, Athena plans to supply El Salvador’s future crypto-based economy with 1500 Bitcoin ATMs.
The distribution will begin slowly, with a few dozen units being tested to determine a business model.
The Chicago-based company intends to invest more than $1 million in bitcoin ATMs in areas where citizens receive remittances from abroad.
It will also hire staff and build an office in El Salvador to carry out activities in addition to installing the new machines.
According to CNN, Athena presently operates only two of these ATMs in El Salvador, one at El Zonte beach as part of an experiment called “Bitcoin Beach” aiming at turning the town into one of the world’s first crypto economies, and the other in El Tunco.
Matias Goldenhörn, Athena’s Latin America director, told Reuters that Salvadorian President 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.”
Following the passage of a bill making Bitcoin legal tender, Athena announced its plans to expand in the country on June 17.
President Bukele was tagged by the firm, who asked if a thousand machines would suffice. He replied that he had set his sights on a higher figure.
1,000? How about 1,500?#BTC♻️ https://t.co/PDApT7M7T5
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) June 16, 2021
Goldenhörn 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.
“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,”
El Salvador’s attempt to adopt Bitcoin has already been met with opposition from the World Bank, which has declined to help the government with the changeover, citing “environmental and transparency issues” linked with the digital currency.
An opposing political party filed a complaint on June 22 arguing that the new Bitcoin regulation is unconstitutional and harmful to the country, according to Cointelegraph.