When Neil Bergquist first encountered bitcoin in 2013 as managing director of Seattle’s SURF Incubator, he didn’t immediately see it as a career-defining opportunity.
“I was a bandwagon fan,” he admits. But what caught his attention wasn’t just bitcoin’s early price booms. He was interested in a nascent technology that would soon transform access to digital assets: the bitcoin ATM.
Fast-forward 10 years, and the global crypto ATM market, valued at $182.1 million in 2023, is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 63.4% through 2030, according to Grand View Research. This growth reflects increasing demand from both crypto enthusiasts and a broader user base seeking alternative financial services outside traditional banking.
Building a Bitcoin ATM Network
From its early days as the owner of one of the first 10 bitcoin ATM locations globally, Coinme has expanded to create what Bergquist calls unprecedented accessibility.
“There is a Coinme location located within roughly 5 miles for 90% of the American population,” he says. “You can actually use cash and buy crypto at more locations in the United States than you can deposit cash to the largest bank network ATMs.”
This infrastructure positions Coinme differently from many crypto companies that focus on trading or speculation.
“If you have a token and you want someone to be able to buy it, you’re going to need to offer fiat payment processing to be able to purchase that token, and that’s where Coinme comes in,” Bergquist says. “We’re able to provide those payment rails where someone can actually be on a website or in an app and be able to actually purchase a token.”
While over 66% of crypto ATMs are currently one-way machines, only allowing cash-to-crypto purchases, Coinme is able to offer an easy cash off ramp as well. Users are increasingly viewing digital assets as investments, as well as practical financial tools.
“Imagine if you had your investment portfolio, stocks, bonds, gold and bitcoin, and you could spend those assets as if they were your checking account,” says Bergquist.
“You can actually have your assets in a secure store of value that not only preserves value. but could potentially go up,” he continues. “I think that’s really a shift in thinking of how people think about their money and how they manage their money, particularly when over 50% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck and just holding cash and spending directly from cash.”
Use Cases
Bergquist identifies three primary use cases driving adoption of Coinme ATMs: cross-border remittances, crypto-native payments, and long-term investment.
“There’s $50 billion a year of cash that’s sent from the United States to Latin America, and that’s cash to cash, which is surprising,” he notes. “Well, now you can put that cash into a Coinme location, get crypto, and send that anywhere faster and cheaper than a lot of existing solutions.”
Crypto payment systems offer notable advantages for merchants as well. According to Bergquist, “Crypto has a lot of benefits to be used for payments because there’s no chargeback risk, there’s no Visa or Mastercard processing fees. It’s faster and cheaper as a payment rail, especially because it’s digitally native.”
These cost savings have the potential to benefit consumers directly, similar to how cash discounts operate today. Bergquist anticipates a comparable trend. “You probably see the signs that say ‘pay in cash and get a discount,’” he says. “We will see something very similar around digital currency and get a discount.”
Bergquist argues that credit and debit cards weren’t built for the internet, noting their origins in the Diners Club card, which was created for in-person restaurant payments and has since been adapted over time.
“With the growth of e-commerce now, people are using debit cards and credit cards online, but the reason why the merchant has to pay so much to accept a debit, credit card is because of fraud and chargebacks, because people can steal those numbers,” he says.
“It’s easy to steal, it’s easy to spoof,” he continues. “Whereas with crypto, if you hold the key, you have the signature, then you’re the one putting that transaction on the blockchain; that’s irreversible and it removes the chargeback risk. It removes the situation where someone could spend your money on your behalf.
“Crypto truly is a digitally native form of money and has solved the problem of trust in a digitally native world. And that’s why everyone in this space is extremely bullish on crypto adoption.”
Recent data from Bank of America speaks to the investment use case. According to its 2024 survey of wealthy Americans, 28% of investors aged 21 to 43 see greater growth potential in crypto and digital assets, compared to just 4% of those 44 and older.
“Data like that makes banks really want to participate,” Bergquist points out.
Bergquist sees significant potential in the convergence of traditional and digital finance, particularly in the B2B sector. “Coinme does have a B2B crypto-as-a-service-group,” he says. “We’re crypto-enabling existing financial institutions.
“Sometimes it’s more like an iceberg more than it is like an earthquake,” Bergquist says, reflecting on the pace of bitcoin ATMs and crypto more broadly. “It takes time, slowly grinding its way into existence, and eventually changes the landscape over time.”
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