The ostensibly first bitcoin ATM machine has been built in Uruguay, thanks to a collaborative effort by Urubit and Inbierto, two national cryptocurrency startups. This is a watershed moment for the country, which has an estimated 40K to 50K cryptocurrency users and whose major means of obtaining crypto is through peer-to-peer exchanges.
According to Adolfo Varela, CEO of Inbierto, the goal of this machine is to gain confidence in the country’s cryptocurrency industry, where most crypto trade occurs in peer-to-peer marketplaces that cannot go via banking owing to a lack of rules. The chance of being a victim of a fraud is stated to be minimised by using a crypto ATM.
Only five cryptocurrencies (including two national tokens) are supported by the installed crypto ATM: ferret token, urubit, bitcoin, binance coin (BNB), and binance USD (BUSD). Because the machines rely on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) to conduct transactions, the firms have not added Ethereum compatibility to the devices. Varela noted that Ethereum’s costs might discourage consumers from utilising the machine, therefore BSC integration was chosen instead.
The country’s regulation is a grey area
Cryptocurrency law in the nation remains ambiguous, although the central bank published a declaration in October last year proclaiming that these assets were neither legal nor illegal, and that residents might use them while also being aware of the consequences they carry.
The Central Bank of Uruguay sets up a roadmap for governing crypto assets in a file issued in December, suggesting to examine current laws and make modifications to include them in multiple current laws, rather than creating a virtual asset law to encapsulate the universe of these holdings in a single project.
