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UK bitcoin ATM provider touts grand plan for network expansion in 2017

June 8, 2017

Bitlish, a U.K.-based bitcoin ATM provider, has announced plans to add 5,000 new terminals across Europe this year.

This reported plan seems exceptionally ambitious, representing as it does a fourfold increase in the current total of bitcoin machines worldwide between now and the end of the year.

The worldwide count today stands at 1,239, according to CoinATMRadar.com, which tracks BTM statistics.

The global installed base of BTMs has expanded slowly since the world's first machine went live in Canada in October 2014.

Industry watchers attribute the sluggish installation pace to a lack of consumer understanding of cryptocurrencies and high BTM transaction fees, which average 9.25 percent, according to Coin ATM Radar.

If Bitlish achieves its stated goal, the company will dramatically — and singlehandedly — increase the installation rate for machines from the current pace of 1.86 per day to a rate of approximately 14 per day.