RALEIGH – North Carolina is the newest state where Coinstaris offering the purchase of bitcoin at a number of kiosks across the state through a partnership with Coinme, a Seattle-based licensed cryptocurrency cash exchange.
A total of 215 kiosks in North Carolina now allow customers to purchase bitcoin using cash, as long as they have a valid mobile phone number, a valid state-issued identification card, and any quantity of U.S. dollars.
An account would need to be created with Coinme in order to purchase bitcoin.
Not that bitcoins are cheap – thus you can make partial purchases.
As of this week, bitcoin is trading at about $40,000, said Coinme CEO Neil Bergquist. “Although bitcoin has a storied history and performance, the value of the cryptocurrency has never dipped below its floor from the previous year, with its price continuing to climb annually.”
“The price decrease can be seen as a correction rather than a crash because it is built into the very code of bitcoin itself to prevent inflation and over-valuation,” he added.
People can purchase portions of bitcoin, also known as partial bitcoin, or units of division called Satoshis, said Bergquist Prices start at one dollar.
According to a recently-conducted survey from Coinstar, of those who use cryptocurrency, 53% use it for investment, and 37% use it to protect their money.
The opening of the kiosks, which are placed at the front of grocery stores like Food Lion and Harris Teeter, comes after the Coinme team received approval and licensure to operate as a digital currency exchange in North Carolina. That approval came through the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks.
AccordingBergquist, there are now 7,000 kiosks across the country, with the first kiosk offering the currency exchange service in 2019.
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Now could be a decent time to purchase bitcoin, said Bergquist, depending on its intended use.
Some may choose to purchase bitcoin, or other cryptocurrency, as a medium of exchange, which can be sent digitally to friends or family, he said.
For others, with a long-term view, bitcoin could potentially be a long-term store of value, even with the price fluctuations as the history of the cryptocurrency does show consistent positive growth, year over year, and it is still considered the most popular and widely-used cryptocurrency.
How the kiosk transfer works
Coinme built enterprise software, which through an API, “crypto-enables” legacy financial institutions, said Bergquist. “Coinstar uses our API to enable their existing kiosks to provide the purchase of bitcoin.”
Coinme provides a secure digital wallet for its users to store their bitcoin, and the company charges fees to convert fiat currency — U.S. dollars — into bitcoin. The company doesn’t charge users to create or maintain an account or a digital wallet.
At a participating Coinstar kiosk, the purchase of bitcoin can be selected. The average user who chooses to purchase bitcoin transfers about $500 of cash into the cryptocurrency, said Bergquist. The Coinstar kiosk prints a voucher, which new or existing Coinme users redeem on the company’s mobile application or through its website, once they’ve signed into or newly created an account and redeemed the voucher.
“At that point, the customer can do whatever they like with their bitcoin,” said Bergquist. ‘The kiosks offer an easy way for [users] to utilize bitcoin as a store of value to accumulate wealth because many Americans don’t have access to traditional assets.”
A brief history of bitcoin
Bergquist said bitcoin follows a four-year cycle, noting that based on his experience, the cycle correlates with bitcoin’s halving events, a term given to the time when number of bitcoins released into circulation is cut by 50%. The most recent halving event was in May 2020, said Bergquist.
“As bitcoin is an asset in its early stages, it is subject to price fluctuations,” said Bergquist. One fluctuation occurred throughout 2011: bitcoin’s price jumped from $1 in April to a peak of $32 in June (an increase of 3,200% in three months) and then fell. In November 2011, the price of one bitcoin was $2.
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The cryptocurrency began 2013 priced at $23.40 per bitcoin, then rose to $220 at the start of April of that year, then fell by the middle of the month to $70, rising to $123.30 in October, and continuing to rise in December at $1,156.10. Three days later, the price of one bitcoin was $760, and by the beginning of 2015, the price of one bitcoin was $315.
Enter 2017: a banner year for bitcoin, with the price at $1,000 at the beginning of that year, said Bergquist.
By mid-December, one bitcoin was priced at $20,089. “The 2017 rally put bitcoin in the headlines and garnered mainstream attention,” said Bergquist. “It also put it on the radar of governments and economists who began to think of developing their digital currencies. Analysts began to debate its value, and experts and investors tried to forecast its next high.”
The price rose again in 2020, which Bergquist said was in part due to investors purchasing bitcoin as they sought a hedge against inflation. In January 2021, the price of bitcoin exceeded prior highs, reaching $41,528, then about $65,000 in April.
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As of this week, bitcoin is trading at about $40,000, said Bergquist. “Although bitcoin has a storied history and performance, the value of the cryptocurrency has never dipped below its floor from the previous year, with its price continuing to climb annually.”
“The price decrease can be seen as a correction rather than a crash because it is built into the very code of bitcoin itself to prevent inflation and over-valuation,” said Bergquist.
According to a recently-conducted survey from Coinstar, of those who use cryptocurrency, 53% use it for investment, and 37% use it to protect their money.
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