Convenience and gas chain Kwik Trip is bringing Coinsource bitcoin ATMs to its more than 800 locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa.
Coinsource kiosks allow consumers to buy and sell bitcoin with U.S. dollars for an 11% fee and receive their bitcoin within minutes. Additionally, Kwik Trip Rewards members will have access to lower rates.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Coinsource and facilitating simple access to bitcoin for our customers,” said Dave Wagner, Controller of Kwik Trip in a statement. “We understand Coinsource’s aim of providing the fastest, easiest and most secure way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and how a key part of this is placing the Bitcoin ATMs in convenient and easily accessible locations.”
Both Circle K and Walmart also have rolled out crypto ATMs for their customers as well — Circle K partnered with Bitcoin Depot to put ATMs in all 700 of its locations across the U.S. and Canada in 2021, and Walmart debuted bitcoin ATMS from Coinstar and CoinMe at 200 locations in October 2021, with plans to eventually bring the kiosks to 8,000 stores.
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Proponents of cryptocurrency ATMs tout them as a vital access point for customers who may be intimidated by or not have access to online crypto exchanges. At the same time, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, which can go through wild fluctuations in value, are considered a relatively risky investment, leading some critics to call out crypto ATMs as predatory given that they are more likely to draw in less sophisticated, often lower-income investors.
The UK’s top financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is known for its warnings that consumers “should be prepared to lose all their money” if they trade bitcoin and recently declared that all bitcoin ATMs in that country were essentially illegal since they are not FCA regulated.
Nonetheless, cryptocurrency doesn’t appear to be going away, as evidenced by the growing number of large U.S. retailers that now accept bitcoin as payment, including Whole Foods, Starbucks and Home Depot.