He said that installing ATMs in major locations and offering 24-hour service attracted customers who were new to investing in cryptocurrency.
โCryptocurrency can be intimidating and if you take it out of the cloud and put it in a shopping mallโฆ it's more accessible to people,โ Weiss said. "We think it's important that there are as many avenues for people to buy crypto as possible."
The cryptocurrency sector had a wild ride last year, including the collapse of stablecoin terraUSD in May and the November bankruptcy of Bahamas-based FTX. The price of bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, plunged last year in what was called the "crypto winter" but has risen since January.
He Commonwealth Bank recently reported that Australians were undaunted by the volatility and continued to invest in cryptocurrencies throughout 2022, a trend that has alarmed some financial experts due to the risk of consumers losing their money.
A spokesman for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said that cryptocurrencies were "highly volatile, inherently risky and complex" and that people should be prepared to lose what they invest.
The federal government is considering regulating some cryptocurrencies as financial products.
Charging
Austrac regulates digital currency exchange providers, including cryptocurrency ATM providers. An earlier attempt to build a crypto ATM network under the Auscoin brand ended in 2019 when Austrac suspended the company's license.
Weiss said that people were drawn to cryptocurrencies because they were concerned about inflation and the economy and did not trust banks.
When a customer uses an Olliv ATM, they must upload their identification documents and click through several pages of warnings about possible scams, including romance scams and calls pretending to be from the Tax Office or eBay requesting payment. Weiss said this was using actual examples, but added that scams were more common in the rest of the financial system.
The machines are housed in malls, news agencies, convenience stores and gas stations in all states and territories. Around 40 of the Olliv machines also allow withdrawals.
Charging
Newsstand Association secretary Ian Booth said the host company typically received between $250 and $400 a month in rent to house the ATMs. The kiosks could also accept payments for cryptocurrency deposits over the counter in the same way as deposits for a Ladbrokes gaming account.
Booth said the cash payments catered to customers who did not want the transactions to appear on their bank statements.
A spokesperson for the Australian Taxation Office said that cryptocurrency transactions were generally subject to capital gains tax, and the ease of using crypto ATMs had made record-keeping difficult for some people.
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