Australia overtakes El Salvador to become 4th largest crypto ATM hub

El Salvador, the first country to legalize Bitcoin (BTC), is down another place in total crypto ATM installations as Australia registers 216 ATMs entering the year 2023.

As part of El Salvador's campaign to establish Bitcoin as legal tender, the president Nayib Bukele had decided to install more than 200 crypto ATMs across the country. Although this move did El Salvador, the third largest crypto ATM center at the time after the United States and Canada in September 2021, Spain and Australia surpassed the Central American country's ATM count 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 Last Three Months Of 2022, Australia Deployed 99 Crypto ATMs, Confirms data from CoinATMRadar. 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.

โ€œCustomers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to carry out their banking transactions,โ€ said Haruna Mustafa, director of banking supervision, in announcing the bell.