Venezuela To Land First Bitcoin ATM While Largest Bank Adds Support For Petro Cryptocurrency

Venezuela has finally got its very first Bitcoin ATM. The country witnessed quite a high volume of Bitcoin trading, and despite that, the Bitcoin ATM launch took several years. the Latin American firm PandaBTM has installed a crypto ATM in San Antonio del Táchira. The machine is located inside a small convenience store, called Viajes e Inversiones HC (Travel and Investments HC), by the side of the main road towards Colombia.

Bank Of Venezuela Opens Petro Registration

Bank of Venezuela is about to become the first financial institution in the country to offer its customers the option of conducting operations in both fiat and crypto. At the moment, though the bank clients seem only to have the option to register a Petro wallet, accounts also have a drop-down menu inviting the users to “choose the type of crypto” they wish to register.

Although there hasn’t been an official announcement made by the bank, the option is presently live on customer accounts. At present, users can only transfer Petros using the official web wallet and trade those tokens on authorized exchanges such as Amberes and Bancar.

Other efforts to expand the crypto ecosystem in Venezuela include a recent partnership between PundiX and Traki, Venezuela's largest retail chain. Traki is perhaps Venezuela's most important business involved in crypto. It was the first major Venezuelan retailer to accept cryptocurrencies as payment, as well as one of the first businesses to accept the state-run digital currency, the Petro.

So even though merchants like Traki appear willing to push Bitcoin and cryptocurrency use throughout Venezuela, the limits to crypto adoption in the country may ultimately be determined by lingering political and economic issues.