It’s no secret that the history of Chicago is intertwined with finance. Therefore, it is not surprising that the city also seems to be experiencing the upcoming bitcoin and cryptocurrency revolution.
Chicago, already home to a proportionally large number of Bitcoin ATMs, is going to get a lot more, thanks to Lux Vending. It was decided to target the city based on higher-than-average cryptocurrency adoption rates.
According to a report in Chicago Business, the city is going to receive 30 more cryptocurrency ATMs. They will be provided by Lux Vending under the Bitcoin Depot brand.
The new terminals will allow customers to exchange physical dollars for bitcoins, ethers and other digital assets. They will join the ever-growing number of such cars in the city. However, Bitcoin Depot is not alone in providing ATMs in Chicago. Other startups have already set up shop in the area.
Among them is Red Leaf Chicago, which owns 60 cars of the city. This represents 30% of their 200 machines currently operating in 21 states. Along with the Bitcoin Depot and Red Leaf Chicago is the Bitcoin Athena. This startup owns only three ATMs in Chicago, as it is even more focused on the international market — especially in South America, where digital assets are constantly gaining popularity, mainly due to necessity.
Despite the fact that Eric Gravengaard, CEO of Athena Bitcoin, said that he could not target the city as much as others, he understood why the location is popular thanks to a “large degree of acceptance.”
The adoption referred to by Gravengaard is largely due to Chicago’s dynamic history with the financial industry. It also helped the city to master cryptocurrency. This recognition is especially confirmed by the fact that local traditional exchange companies CBOE Global Markets and CME Group both launched the first US bitcoin futures contracts at the end of 2017, at the height of this year.
Other signs of Chicago warming to cryptocurrency include the extensive base of operations that Coinbase operates in the city and the number of crypto-related startups such as ErisX and SeedCX that are developing their own trading platforms.