Bitcoin Daily: Crypto ATMs Expand Networks, Volume; S. Africa Proposes Regs Restricting Crypto Uses

Bitcoin ATMs are seeing consistent traffic during the pandemic, according to operators.

The machines, often found in supermarkets, gas stations and other such hubs, are sometimes considered essential and can be found still operating even as many factions of society are locked down.

Blockchain-based and crypto-based games and programs are in vogue right now as people are spending more time online, and the ATMs have seen fairly upbeat traffic, according to operators.

DigitalMint, one of said operators, said it had seen a slight decline in traffic, but not too much — and the firm has been expanding its number of machines since March, adding new locations in big cities like Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Coinsquare, which only recently got the license to operate as a crypto ATM company, reported an average transaction size spiking 167 percent over the past seven days.

However, bitcoin use, like almost every other sector of society, has been hurt by the pandemic.

In South Africa, regulatory action could place restrictions on cryptocurrency.

If lawmakers have their way, the previously unregulated market would have new rules. For instance, cryptocurrency wouldn’t be allowed to be used as a settlement tool in South Africa’s financial infrastructure. But people would still be allowed to use it as a domestic payment tool under the regulations for that type of payment.

South Africa’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) said the payments using crypto funds would be subject to a regulatory sandbox approach and would have to match up as close as possible with the country’s current securities government schemes, submitting white papers.

Canadian investor Salim Satir, who works with cryptocurrency, filed a lawsuit against exchanges GateHub and Bitstamp for $4.9 billion in losses.

The suit, filed at the High Court of Justice in England, alleges that the problem came from misleading statements on GateHub about the trading function between bitcoin and Ripple. There was also a wrongful keeping of 872 Bitcoin Cash during the bitcoin fork in August 2017.

Satir says when he tried to go ahead with a purchase of bitcoin for Ripple, he was instead given “bitcoin IOUs” held by Bitstamp. That was compounded upon by the August 2017 incident, where GateHub reportedly failed to deliver the 872 bitcoin from the fork that spawned BCH.

The value of both of those, in Satir’s estimation, is $4.9 billion total.

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