More disappointment and failure swept the cryptocurrency space this week. Sam Bankman-Fried was once the wonder of Web3 until a public statement about cryptocurrency regulation took it out of the good graces of most of the blockchain community.
Little did we know that Bankman-Fried’s publicly unpopular remarks were a warm-up act for the swan. FTX exchange FTT/USD and price Bitcoin BTC/USD — and like other network coins Solana SOL/USD – jointly, with this.
These highly visible explosions of DeFi darlings have a detrimental effect on both retail and institutional investors. When the houses of our leading projects are not in order, it becomes difficult to spread cryptocurrency.
Again, the great generalization continues and the leaders like CoinFlip quietly contributing to the acquisition of new crypto users.
CoinFlip has thousands of Bitcoin ATMs throughout the US and Canada, making it easy to participate in cryptocurrency by making it easier and more accessible to buy the world’s most popular token. All you need is cash and a kiosk: the wallet comes later.
We spoke with the CEO of CoinFlip Ben Weiss learn more about cryptocurrency spread strategy through bear market. Weiss will be speaking at Benzinga’s Future of Crypto event on December 7 at Pier Sixty in New York City.
Ben Weiss at the CoinFlip Experience Center.
BZ: What is the purpose of the BTC ATM Machine — for users outside of the cryptocurrency space?
Weiss: “CoinFlip owns and operates over 4,000 Bitcoin ATMs in the US and Canada. We’re trying to demystify cryptocurrency. We’re trying to take it out of the cloud and make it physical and tangible. Our ATMs are in people’s gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and neighborhoods. People use them they’ll see and then they’ll be interested. With CoinFlip, all you need is your phone and some cash. We started CoinFlip because we don’t want there to be barriers to getting into crypto, whether it’s not having a bank account or not being comfortable with the latest technologies. .”
BZ: Isn’t Bitcoin too volatile to use as an ATM currency?
“Bitcoin’s volatility can make it difficult for people to use it as a payment mechanism, but people in the US mostly use our Bitcoin ATMs to buy cryptocurrency.”
BZ: What premium do users pay to buy Bitcoin with CoinFlip using cryptocurrency?
“The price of CoinFlip on the kiosk is about 6% to 12%, which is one of the lowest in the industry.”
BZ: How many people have joined CoinFlip first Crypto Wallets?
“We don’t have the exact number, but it is hundreds of thousands.”
BZ: Who are the intended users of your BTC ATMs?
“Our kiosk users include the unbanked and underbanked, which is 20% of people in the US. But our users are interested in cryptocurrency. Some people see Bitcoin ATMs and they always think about getting into Bitcoin. and their friends might have talked about it. But they never had a call to action. Then they go to the grocery store and then they see it. Maybe they don’t try it the first time or the second time they see it. But the third time they think, OK, I’ll put $50. There might be a waiter at the end of his shift who takes his tips in cash and wants to put in additional tips in crypto. We see a lot of people spending the dollar average.”
BZ: How do your user demographics differ from the big crypto exchanges?
“I would say that people who are getting into crypto using CoinFlip are interested in crypto. CoinFlip customers are usually not power traders. This is for regular, everyday people who have heard about crypto and are interested in crypto to take control of their financial destiny. It could be people who are not technologically savvy but still want to participate and deserve to participate.”
BZ: Do you see the same level of BTC ATM interaction during the bear market? Do you keep adding ATMs?
“We’re totally into crypto winter. We’re hiring. We’ve continued to add locations. For anyone who might be scared because the price is going down, someone sees this as a great opportunity to buy one of the best. -performing assets at a discount over the last 10 years. Our numbers are very stable. In 2022, your friends aren’t talking about crypto because it’s crypto winter, but you still see our ATMs at your grocery store or gas station. They’re getting reminders about cryptocurrencies with physical ATMs that they can’t get on online exchanges.”
BZ: What are your goals for 2022?
“We want to be people’s first entry point to crypto. And we think ATMs are a simple way to do that. We just opened the CoinFlip crypto Experience Center in downtown Tampa, where live crypto guides can help you load your wallet. Some classes are either in person, or it’s open to the public online. So we’re just trying to get as many people into the ecosystem as possible.”
Last Word
Cryptocurrency experts like to say that a bear market is a great time to build. For CoinFlip, this seems to be true. We’ve all agreed that crypto projects need to show real utility, but sometimes it’s nice to find a project that adds a physical metaphor to the shopping experience, bridging the generation gap between finance 30 years ago and finance today.
BTC ATMs serve as 4,000 distributed kiosks for beginners. For those outside of the Web3 space who have never heard of Bankman-Fried, the Bitcoin ATM at the local dairy can speak louder than any leader in our space.
This story is part of the content related to the Benzinga Future of Crypto 2022 summit. The best minds and most important projects on Web3 will participate, including Rarible, Cosmos, Yuga Labs, Solana, Laguna Labs and Algorand. Keynote speakers include Jordan Belfort, Kevin O’Leary and Anthony Scaramucci.