Whenever I see a Bitcoin ATM inside of a convenience store or gas station, I am always captivated to take a picture.

What's wrong with this picture? It was taken on October 29th, 2024 around noon. If you guessed the spread added to the actual price, you are correct. At that time, Bitcoin was trading just above 71k. Bitcoin has never even touched 75k.

So why the spread? Bitcoin ATM operators want to make money, so they will charge you an additional spread on top of the current market price. In the case of the Bitstop machine pictured above, the spread was approximately 5.5%. Users of these machines are being charged more than the current market price for Bitcoin. For someone with out access to the internet or other means of acquiring Bitcoin, the surcharge may seem justifiable.

I wonder, though, are these machines doing a disservice to Bitcoin adaptation? I would say that for anyone wanting to send money using the network, it may make sense. But if I were sending money and we're aware of the alternatives, I would be a bit annoyed with all the fees. Network fees are already rather high with Bitcoin, so the additional spread charged by the ATM operator really makes these machines look less attractive.

Crypto industry will always find ways to make money off the top, just as banks have done with the traditional fiat money system. But this kind of scalping is truly disingenuous to the original idea of Bitcoin being a peer-to-peer electronic money system without central authority. I'm not yet accusing the crypto industry (or Wall Street, for that matter) of ruining Bitcoin. But the more the financial industry peripherals attaching themselves to Bitcoin, the more it begins to look like the traditional system it was created as an alternative to.

In any case, as always, knowledge is power.

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