Bitcoin ATMs at Walmart – What is the retail giant up to?
With a Sales of approximately $ 559 billion In the last fiscal year, Walmart is at least ahead of Amazon, one of the retail chain’s biggest competitors, in terms of sales. Walmart had slept through online retail for too long, but has caught up in recent years. With the acquisitions of jet.com and the Indian e-commerce portal Flipkart, Walmart has now also positioned itself strongly internationally.
Although jet.com was not successful, it was still possible to collect the knowledge to strengthen your own online shop at walmart.com. In addition, the automatic redirection from jet.com to the Walmart shop will certainly strengthen the brand. For a long time, the Internet was an area that was not taken seriously by large companies – to the chagrin of many established companies that were unable to hold their own against online retailers like Amazon in the battle for customers.
Many supporters of cryptocurrencies see crypto adoption as a duty that must progress faster in the next few years. Tesla and MicroStrategy have already invested more than a billion dollars in Bitcoin. Both companies have already achieved enormous returns through price gains, but above all the blockchain also offers many technical possibilities. Be it as a means of payment or as a basis for smart contracts and decentralized applications.
Apple, Amazon and Walmart have advertised job vacancies and are looking for executives with blockchain expertise. This already proves that many companies have at least discovered the potential or fear that you will miss out on the progress. Companies like Apple or Amazon in particular are keen to explore new fields. Walmart could see it the same way in this case and thus prevent a further loss of importance. The fear of missing out on something is known to be very great, especially in the cryptocurrency industry.
With more than 100 million customers worldwide per week, Walmart has the power that internet-only providers don’t have. Because Walmart can also bring people who have little to do with technology and the Internet closer to the topic of Bitcoin. Up to 8,000 Bitcoin machines are planned. The pilot project includes 200 kiosks in Walmart stores.
The Bitcoin machines are made available in cooperation with Coinstar and the crypto exchange Coinme. In addition to the high fee structure of up to eleven percent in total – which Walmart can certainly also earn, it helps, above all, to assess how important cryptocurrencies could be in retail.
Although it is not possible to buy products directly in the store with a Bitcoin machine, Walmart can still measure the interest in Bitcoin in brick-and-mortar retail. Above all, Walmart presents Bitcoin in a better light. For a long time, Bitcoin was only something for technically minded people and – at least according to critics – for criminals.
You can’t hold a Bitcoin in your hand, anonymity is always a cause for concern among skeptics. Bitcoin, however, is pseudo-anonymous and although Bitcoin only exists virtually, Walmart brings the cryptocurrency sector into the everyday life of many people. One can assume that Walmart already has further plans in the cryptocurrency sector and is waiting for the right moment to do so. In the meantime, the Bitcoin machine in the branch is the perfect way to offer Bitcoin in Walmart right now – albeit not as a means of payment.
