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Walmart Inc stated that its clients on specific US stores could now purchase Bitcoin (BTC/USD) using Bitcoin ATMs Coinstar installed. Currently, there are around 200 Coinstar kiosks situated inside Walmart stores in the United States. Through these kiosks, customers now have a platform where they can purchase Bitcoin.
Coinstar is an ATM service provider popular for installing ATMs that allow users to exchange physical coins for crypto. The firm has also collaborated with CoinMe to allow customers to purchase Bitcoin at selected kiosks.
Walmart & Crypto
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The communications director at Walmart, Molly Blakeman, spoke with CoinDesk confirming this development.
There are 200 Coinstar kiosks located inside Walmart stores across the United States that are part of this pilot.
Coinstar and CoinMe are the two platforms that are making this process possible. After fiat currency is inserted into the machine, a voucher is issued. The user then has to set up a CoinMe account and complete a know-your-customer process to redeem the voucher.
The Coinstar website states that the ATM charges a 4% fee for those who purchase Bitcoin and a 7% fee for those who exchange their assets into cash. The recent development was covered by Walmart cautiously because of a hoax last month stating that Walmart was partnering with Litecoin (LTC/USD). Walmart has, however, confirmed the current news despite failing to issue a press release.
Concerns over Bitcoin ATMs
Over the past year, the installation and use of Bitcoin ATMs across the United States has been high. Last year, Coinstar had announced that it was expanding its ATM installations across the United States to around 3500 machines to meet the growing demand.
However, the rising use of Bitcoin ATMs has created debate regarding the compliance issues surrounding these currencies. These ATMs are believed to be avenues for promoting money laundering because some of the operators of these machines fail to pay any attention when illegal activities are conducted using these machines.
Last month, Kraken issued a report that showed that Bitcoin ATMs were home to various vulnerabilities that threat actors could exploit and compromise the privacy of the users of these machines.
According to the Kraken report, many owners of the GBBATM2 ATM brands failed to change the default QR code. This meant that threat actors with access to these QR codes could compromise these machines. Hence, users are advised to use systems that they trust.