Topic: Walmart Sells Bitcoin - page 3. (Read 569 times)

It is always a positive news to see that all the Walmart stores having a Bitcoin Kiosk but anyone who invested in Bitcoin will never go to an ATM Kiosk and will be willing to give 4% as transaction fees and 7% as cash exchange fees when you can purchase the coin through exchanges at a really lower rate. Over all it is a good advertisement for the cryptocurrency market.

While this in itself is already a great thing for bitcoin, I don’t think that this will be as big as it is even if Walmart is involved. Not a lot of shoppers who go to Walmart are interested in bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. They might get intrigued, or think that they’ve seen bitcoin somewhere but not to the point that they will buy bitcoin or something. It might kickstart something new, but the chances of it happening because of Walmart and the mini stall inside it is pretty slim.

While it is great for adoption, it's a huge leap to associate Coinstar machines with the retailers that host them. One advantage to this however is that these machines tend to be around the entrance/exit of the shop, so anything tagged with Bitcoin will be seen by almost every shopper who is paying attention. It's a form of indirect marketing and might subconsciously sway people to do more research. If these machines also convert coins into cash and offer Bitcoin as a payout option, that will introduce it to many people who otherwise would never be exposed to it - the people with the least money available and the ability to convert it into an electronic format is a great idea.

Whoever sells bitcoin, there is always a buyer who is buying it. Due to limited supply, the demand of bitcoin will always be high.

I don't knew that walmart had bitcoins but there is nothing to worry about as the sell off effects won't be long lasting. Market is bullish and fundamentally we are super bullish.

It is a bit of a "Click bait" title.... because Wallmart are not selling Bitcoin directly to their customers.... but even if they use a third party.. it is still huge news. The down side of this, is the 11% in fees that they are paying for those bitcoins. 

Let's hope this is the "gateway" into more extensive buying/selling/trading for these people into the future. They get the taste for it.. and they start looking for cheaper ways to get some more.    The next big thing will be when Wallmart start to accept Bitcoin as a payment option... 

The positive thing I get from this is :
Walmart is supporting bitcoins and cryptocurrencies as a whole.

The negative thing:
Extra fee
KYC needed
People don't have much options here.

Now lets talk about the problems that might arise, at the end of the day people should know more about cryptocurrencies before they even start engaging in them, plus if they do buy small amount of coins through Walmart, then am perfectly sure they do know a thing of two about bitcoins, which does mean that they also understand the fact that there might be better sources to buy Bitcoins from, one where they won't have to use KYC this they might be bringing it to masses but they are not offering a good deal.
( But it's not them but they are in a *partnership* which is a little different from them selling those coins )
Good news though.

For non-tech people this would be extremely useful. Many of these people will hear about BTC but won't know where to start and Coinstar kiosks provides that initiation step for them.

The other factor it helps with is spreading the awareness and getting people talking about crypto, about Bitcoin so it will serve well from that stand point. But as to whether lots of people will go ahead to use buy their own BTC is another matter but I feel that this is at least an encouraging step.

The new’s core entity here is indeed Walmart. Nevertheless, what I wanted to get here are some responses of users of the existing topology, regardless of its placement, so as to get an idea of why they used a kiosk of the type under the current conditions, and whether it was a one-off or if it lead to a recurring habit.

Not that I’d expect many insights here really, but if anyone does have that experience it would be interesting to read, specifically the motivational drivers.

I thought it would like one of those news again. Quite convenient to have those kiosks though. KYC is a no-no for me, so I would not imagine myself transacting with these plus I would not bother going through setting up CoinMe account. I am already good to how I buy my Bitcoin through my local custodial wallet.
I would not be surprised if Target would get those kiosks as well soon.

Coinstar has been offering bitcoin for some time now.  I remember hearing about it starting to do so a couple years ago.  The local grocery store by me (Jewel Osco) had a coinstar so right after I heard about this I checked and they had the bitcoin option up and running.  

Just an FYI of note, if you're not familiar with coinstar..its a big fat scam.  It's a way to turn your change into dollars, and it costs a sizable percentage to do so.  Idiots use these as you could just go to your bank and do the same thing for free.  ALWAYS look at the change return area for coins that were not accepted.  Currently coinstars wont register old junk silver dimes/quarters etc, so they will be spit back out and normally people forget to look there after they are done wasting money using them.  

It is less about Coinstar and more about Walmart. I don't know how strategic the locations of the rest of Coinstar's Bitcoin kiosks are but as far as Walmart is concerned, the foot traffic is very high. Statista has it that in 2020, Walmart stores have a daily average of 37 million customers.^[1]


I doubt there is somebody here who buys, or will buy, Bitcoin from one of these kiosks, save perhaps those who wish to try for the sake of trying. People in this forum must already be more or less aware that there are much better options.

Anyway, I am looking at this development more as an effective way of spreading Bitcoin awareness among non-crypto people than a way of giving Bitcoin fans and supporters the opportunity to buy Bitcoin.

Incidentally, I was scrolling Bitcoin Twitter earlier today and stumbled upon a comment coming from a user who had just come to know about Bitcoin because of the newly-approved Bitcoin ETF. I wanted to share that here but I cannot find the comment anymore. Anyway, my point is that these hundreds of Bitcoin kiosks in Walmart stores could also serve as the first time or the stumbled-upon or discovery moment to many people.

Having said this, I doubt this approach of selling Bitcoin is sustainable. After all, it is generally banking on non-crypto people. But this will definitely benefit Bitcoin in general nonetheless.

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[1] https://capitalcounselor.com/walmart-statistics/

Since Coinstar already seems to have over 4K kiosks of the kind in the US, that allow for bitcoin purchase, the pilot is currently a dent in volume, but a potential booster to drive the toll to 8k Coinstar kiosks offering bitcoin purchase if all goes well on their end.

Most here, if not all, see the 11% aggregate fee as something way over the top, especially if we bear in mind the conditions (mandatory sign-up with Coinme, KYC, voucher – not direct). I wonder if there are people around here that can attest to having made BTC purchase at one of these kiosks (where ever the placement may be), and reason their decision, as the recurrence of the same.

As long as the third-party/middle-man problem which Bitcoin is meant solve to make transactions cheaper than the traditional financial systems doesn't discourage people or give them bad impression about the cryptocurrency

This is just a Walmart pilot program with 200 Coinstar Bitcoin ATMs and good thing is that they have plans to install much more of this devices in other stores across United States.
I don't like their high fees and mandatory kyc but it is good for spreading the word Bitcoin, and trust me there are still a lot of people who have no idea about Bitcoin or they just heard about it.
Coinstar is just one of many Bitcoin ATM providers, so I expect competition to react with new better deals, and things should be more clear when you see this chart of all crypto ATM installations:


https://coinatmradar.com/charts/growth/

Although it is definitely positive that in this way Bitcoin is approaching the masses and getting an additional promotion, it does not seem fair to me to charge as much as 11% of the fee in this case. I know there are costs and everyone in the process has to make money, but if we consider that every potential buyer has to make KYC and then pay a pretty high fee to buy BTC - why not choose some online exchange where it can go a lot cheaper and do everything from the comfort of his home?

More and more companies want their share of the crypto pie, I see it on the other side of the big pond - I can buy and sell crypto in places I never thought would offer such services. The only problem is that most still have fairly high fees, and that's why most people still invest using online platforms.

I don't think people would suddenly be flocking to Walmart just to buy bitcoin. This is probably just good in a way that it would make people curious, and hopefully end up being interested and try buying like $10 of bitcoin.

This is like people from where Walmart can be found have now an idea where they can buy and sell bitcoin on its kiosks or atm.

I think so but the important matter on this news is that it's bringing adoption near to those establishments that are known already like Walmart. We'll see more of this soon.

I don't think it'll be a huge success, due to the fact that it requires its users to go through a KYC process for "insignificant amounts" while there are other BTM brands that only require KYC after reaching a certain limit!

But fees "aren't that high" at the moment.

Care to explain the connection between those two things?

Because it's in the pilot stage.

Installing ATMs is okay, although I wonder why they didn't make a big announcement out of it and why they are available only in some stores (also, how many are we talking about?). But why did it have to be with KYC? Or do the majority of ATMs in the US require setting up an account and verifying identity before using it? Why not set reasonable KYC-free limits, and require verification for big purchases? That would be okay to fight money laundering and would also allow more privacy for crypto users. It's ridiculous to check every order. I remember living in Hungary and exchanging EUR for HUF. Every transaction up to 300 EUR didn't require any ID or personal data! So why should Bitcoin users be subjected to different policies?

Walmart have planned for the 200 installation through Coinstar and CoinMe. This is set to be the base, and in broader it has planned for 8000 ATM machines across the country. At present US has got 25000+ Bitcoin ATMs. Among them 4400 Kiosks were run by Coinstar. Now partnering with walmart will make them more strong. Bitcoin ATM plan from Walmart will widen and make bitcoin an easy access to common people.

The increased fee is always a big thing with Bitcoin ATM. However if this changes, then these new ATM installation by walmart will make a change and increase adoption.