Brandon Mintz of Bitcoin Depot on the Many Changes to the ATM Industry

Brandon Mintz is the CEO of Bitcoin Depot, one of the largest crypto ATM firms in the world. He bought his first bitcoin in 2013, and he says a lot’s changed since then.

Brandon Mintz on the World of Bitcoin ATMs

At 29 years of age, Mintz wanted to see bitcoin help the “little guys” that were being cut out by the arena of mainstream finance. Right now, the company has grown to include a web of more than 6,000 machines, though he says competition is getting fierce. He commented in a recent interview:

Before COVID… there were a lot of new entrants into the bitcoin ATM industry, a lot of small operators. If you had everything in place to operate a bitcoin ATM, you could put one on a busy street corner in a big city, and it was almost like a guarantee that you would do decent enough to be profitable.

He also said using a crypto ATM is quite simple, and it’s designed to keep the transaction process quick and easy. He says all people really need are cash, a phone, and some form of identification, though the process can vary depending on the company. Mintz said:

For us, it is your first and last legal name, your phone number, your email address, and we run you through sanction screening. You also [need] to verify you own the wallet address being provided personally, and you’re not sending bitcoin to a third party.

He also commented that as the industry grows, it’s likely smaller companies are going to get edged out, and eventually, only the big players will be able to stand their ground. He said:

With the competition these days… you [need] to have a strong brand that is recognizable. A lot of the small operators realized over the past year that it’s going to be very difficult to compete. A lot of them, anecdotally from conversations, are thinking about, ‘Should I try to compete, or should I get out and sell my portfolio to some larger company such as Bitcoin Depot?’

He pointed to the case of a company called DFW Bitcoin in Texas. The company only owned ten ATMs and being based in Texas (a very large and competitive region), it wasn’t long before its struggles turned into crashing and burning. He said:

A lot of people don’t have any compliance staff. They don’t even have a website. It literally may just be one guy and his brother.

Working Within the Rules

When it comes to compliance, Mintz says:

My goal was always to create the strongest compliance program and hire good compliance staff, including a compliance officer that I hired very early on in the business. We’ve always strived to go above and beyond what’s legally required of us.