One of the largest cryptocurrency ATM operators, Coin Cloud, has filed for bankruptcy last week in the U.S. As per reports in November 2022 there were nearly 33,500 Bitcoin ATMs in the U.S. alone and Coin Cloud operated more than 5,000 of them, representing a 7.9% share of the market overall.
Cryptocurrency ATMs are automated teller machines that allow users to buy or sell cryptocurrencies for cash or other fiat currencies, conveniently located in various locations such as convenience stores, shopping malls, and other public places. Coin Cloud’s ATMs empowered users to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and other popular cryptocurrencies with cash.
According to Coin Cloud’s filings, the firm has assets between $50 million and $100 million from about 10,000 creditors, while its liabilities range between $100 million to $500 million. The largest creditor is Genesis Global to which Cash Cloud reportedly owes $116.4 million, and who had also filed for bankruptcy last month.
On its website, Coin Cloud claims it is “the world’s largest two-way digital currency machine operator” and “is Creating a Future with Digital Currency For All.” In a statement to Cointelegraph after the bankruptcy filing, Chris McAlary, the founder and CEO of Coin Cloud, said this would allow the company to “rework our debt, protect the interests of our creditors, and emerge as a stronger, more financially stable company,” adding that he was still “optimistic about the future of the cryptocurrency industry.”
“The world’s first bitcoin ATM, outfitted with a palm scanner, was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, British Columbia, in October 2013,” writes Axios. Since then, the industry grew enormously, becoming a prominent player in the crypto ecosystem, only between 2020 and 2022 “the number of machines in the U.S. more than tripled. And the costs of financing that growth is now tripping up the overleveraged amid the market downturn.”
Source: gizmodo.com
