Europe’s largest consumer electronics retailer, Media-Markt will begin hosting multiple Bitcoin ATMs throughout Austria.
This is an important development because the electronics retail chain, which has over 1,000 stores in 13 countries, wants to make it easier for its customers to buy and sell digital currency.
Bitcoin will be available for purchase at Kurant vending machines. Kurant, a Coinfinity spin-off and market leader in running BTC ATMs in Europe, is now allowing customers to purchase the flagship cryptocurrency at their 200 ATMs in Austria, Spain, Greece, and Germany.
According to the publication, Media-Markt has been testing such functionality since 2019 at one of its Vienna branches, Wien-Mitte, and has decided to expand it due to high demand.
Last November, Media-Markt was targeted by a phishing campaign laced with Hive malware. Initially, the hacker group requested $240 million to provide decryption software for the encrypted files. Despite the fact that the ransom was later reduced to $50 million in Bitcoins, the hack caused IT systems to fail, affecting a large number of retail stores across Europe, primarily in the Netherlands and Germany.
Bitcoin ATMs make it simple for people to buy and sell Bitcoins, and this move by Europe’s electronics retailers, including retail giant Walmart (NYSE:WMT), which decided to install 200 Bitcoin ATMs in stores across the United States in October 2021, should help to raise awareness and use of the cryptocurrency. More importantly, these mega-corporations’ actions demonstrate their belief that Bitcoin is a legitimate currency with a future.
To read our blog on “FIA arrests a Brazilian gang of ATM skimmers” click here.
