Uruguay has reportedly installed its first bitcoin (BTC) ATM, making it the 11th South American country to publicly encourage crypto adoption. Prior to Uruguay’s participation, South America hosted 79 ATMs, representing 0.2% of global BTC ATM installations.
According to Ombito, Uruguay’s first crypto ATM was installed in the coastal city of Punta del Este, which is a major tourist attraction in the region. Uruguay’s first bitcoin ATM was developed and installed in partnership with two local crypto companies – Urubit and Inbierto.
Crypto ATMs in Uruguay currently support the withdrawal and deposit of five cryptocurrencies, namely – BTC, Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Ferret Token (FRT) and Urubit (URUB). FRT and URUB are in-house cryptocurrencies that are managed and distributed by URUBit and inBierto respectively.
Inbierto CEO Adolfo Varela confirmed that the initiative was 100% funded by the Government of Uruguay. inBierto is a crypto investment platform, also a member of the Uruguayan Chamber of Fintech (Camera Uruguay de Fintech), a startup accelerator focused on the fintech sector. URUBit is a decentralized token created in Uruguay and deployed on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
Data from Coin ATM Radar shows that Colombia leads the South American market with 31 crypto ATM installations, followed by Brazil and Argentina with 22 and 11 installations respectively.
Other South American countries such as Ecuador, Venezuela, Aruba and St. Kitts and Nevis have also installed a crypto ATM.
inBierto has yet to respond to a request for comment from Cointelegraph.
related: Uruguay Senator Introduces Bill to Enable Use of Crypto for Payments
Last year, a senator from Uruguay introduced a draft bill to regulate cryptocurrency and enable businesses to accept crypto payments.
As Cointelegraph reported, Senator Juan Sartori was unwilling to adopt crypto as legal tender. Instead, he suggested:
“Today we present a bill that seeks to establish lawful, legal and secure use in Uruguay in businesses related to the production and commercialization of virtual currencies.”
