Coronavirus has accelerated the growth of Bitcoin Automated Teller Machine (ATM) installations this year. Since the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs has been rising high as the global pandemic arose the need for contactless digital payments. Amid the Coronavirus situation, the number of Bitcoin ATM installations has grown up by approximately 85 percent in the present year, as per data from Coin ATM Radar.

With a rise of 85 percent, the number of Bitcoin ATMs has now reached 11,798. This growth in Bitcoin ATM installations witnessed this year is more than that of the last year. In 2019, the number of Bitcoin ATMs rose by only 50 percent. This means that it is up by a massive margin this year and still there are nearly two months left in 2020.

Reportedly, more than 800 ATMs were added alone by the United States of America (USA) within the duration of one month in October, as per Coin ATM Radar’s “Bitcoin ATM Market Dynamics October 2020” report. In terms of digital currency adoption, the United States is on the top. While on the other hand, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom are in the second, third, and fourth spots respectively. Bitcoin mainstream adoption is expected to grow further in the future as various big investors such as MicroStrategy and PayPal have already developed their interest in the top-ranked cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin ATMs basically let individuals buy digital currency via a debit card or with cash. The need for Bitcoin ATMs was felt amid the COVID-19 crisis as governments of Coronavirus-affected countries did not allow people to make physical payments. Due to the fear of getting infected by the virus, people also avoided making physical contact with each other. So, this gave rise to the need for contactless digital payments which boosted the number of Bitcoin ATMs across the whole globe. This growth also boosted the popularity of the world’s largest digital currency as a payment method. On the other hand, the global pandemic also brought a major inflow of institutional investors to Bitcoin as well.