The recent decline in ATM installations began in January, falling by nearly 90%, but 817 new ATMs are now available to users. The capacity of the Lightning Network has reached all-time highs of 3,920,813 BTC, further improving the speed of BTC transactions.
In 2022, the number of Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs installed worldwide has experienced a sharp drop. During May, the installations of only 202 new BTC ATMs occurred, a low since 2019.
The recent decline in the volume of ATM installations began in January when they fell by nearly 90% from 1,971 in December. However, they rebounded during the first five days of June with 817 new ATMs available to users.
It is relevant to know that the current geopolitical tensions have hit the cryptocurrency ATM sector heavily. Strict regulations and the commercial impact of the COVID-19 spikes also affected its growth negatively.
Data from Coin ATM Radar indicates that the United States has 33,245 Bitcoin ATMs, 87.9% of the 37,827 cryptocurrency ATMs worldwide. Besides, Europe is home to a network of 1,419 cryptocurrency ATMs, around 3.8% of the global total.
ATM manufacturer Genesis Coin leads the sector worldwide, representing 41% of all cryptocurrency ATMs. Other manufacturers with a significant market share are General Bytes (21.6%), BitAccess (16%), Coinsource (5.4%), and Bitstop (4.7%).
The Bitcoin Lightning Network Continues Improving the Speed of Transactions
The first Lightning Network (LN) implementation on the Bitcoin network occurred in 2018 to address scalability issues.
The geopolitical, economic, and COVID-19 circumstances have affected the physical expansion of Bitcoin through the installation of ATMs. However, the Bitcoin network continues to increase the security, decentralization, and speed of the peer-to-peer (P2P) network.
Data from Bitcoin Visuals and the latest Arcane Research report indicate that the capacity of the Lightning Network has reached all-time highs of 3,920,813 BTC. In that way, it further improved the speed of BTC transactions and reduced the fees over the layer-2 protocol.
The Arcane Research report also showed a duplication in unique channels and a 400% increase in payment volume in the Bitcoin LN.
Over the last year, unique channels on the platform have increased by 100% to over 88,000. Metrics like connectivity measurement and channels per node have also experienced similar increases.
According to Arcane Research, the implementation of the Lightning Network has fueled the growth and adoption of the pioneering cryptocurrency.
BTC is trading at around USD 31,233 and has accumulated a 4.3% gain over the last 24 hours. While its daily trading volume is above USD 26.49 billion, its market capitalization is about USD 597.12 billion, according to CoinGecko.
The many digital wallets that use the Lightning Network technology include BlueWallet, Zebedee, and Reez. In addition, the Salvadoran Chivo Wallet has adopted the LN, while the Cash App payment app has integrated it into its platform.
Bitcoin has become relevant in the world economy, evident in the growing number of ATMs installed. Despite the current circumstances affecting the crypto market, people still believe in BTC as a long-term store of value.
By Alexander Salazar
