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Bitstop shakes up bitcoin ATM space with Genesis Coin acquisition

The ATM industry is no stranger to high profile acquisitions and the bitcoin side of the industry has joined the trend. Bitstop, a bitcoin ATM provider, has acquired Genesis Coin, which powers more than 12,000 bitcoin ATMs in the U.S., and accounts for 31.9% of all such machines worldwide.

Bitstop shakes up bitcoin ATM space with Genesis Coin acquisitionDoug Carrillo, Bitstop, Evan Rose, Genesis Coin, Andrew Barnard, Bitstop. Photo provided.


| by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace

The ATM industry is no stranger to high profile acquisitions and the bitcoin side of the industry has joined the trend.

On Jan. 24, Bitstop, a bitcoin ATM provider, acquired Genesis Coin, which powers more than 12,000 bitcoin ATMs in the U.S., and accounts for 31.9% of all such machines worldwide, according to Coin ATM Radar.

Andrew Barnard and Doug Carrillo, co-founders of Bitstop will take over as CEO and chief strategy officer respectively. Evan Rose, founder CEO of Genesis Coin, will transition as a technical advisor and current board member.

"Genesis Coin gave birth to the bitcoin ATM industry," Barnard said in a press release. "It's the first and largest bitcoin ATM software platform in the world. Evan built a platform trusted by some of the largest bitcoin ATM operators in our industry, both domestically and internationally, including the Chivo network in partnership with the government of El Salvador."

To learn more about what the acquisition means for the industry, ATM Marketplace reached out to Andrew Barnard, co-founder and CEO of Bitstop, via an email interview.

Q. Can you give a little background on the acquisition?

A. Evan, Doug and I have known of each other since the beginning of the industry. We have been building this industry separately and now we are building it together. We explored a potential partnership in the past, but it was a little too early. We recently got together again to talk about the future at a high-level. The timing was right. The vision alignment felt good. The energy was all there. It felt natural. It came together effortlessly.

Q. What does the geographic reach of the two companies look like?

A.Bitstop and Genesis Coin both have robust coverage in the United States. Genesis Coin has more international presence especially in Latin America with Athena and the Chivo partnership with the government of El Salvador. Bitstop is beginning to establish international operations with strategic partners. We have operators in Europe, Australia and Asia. We plan to focus a lot more on international growth with the added resources we have and some of the partners we are talking to.

Q. How will this improve bitcoin ATM services?

A.Both companies will continue to build out a team. Genesis Coin is beginning to make key hires and grow its team. We believe in efficiency and running lean, but it's also important to make sure there is redundancy, continuity and legacy. You need a team to give operators a strong stable foundation if you want them to build bigger and scale without fear. That's the goal.

In the short-term we will continue to optimize and enhance current service. Over the long-term, we will evaluate technical synergies and make important strategic decisions about long-term infrastructure investments that support our plans for future growth.

Q. What excites you the most about this acquisition?

A. The opportunity is massive for Genesis Coin and Bitstop. We're the only major United States-based private and white-label platforms remaining that continue to remain independent and neutral. We do not operate machines. We have no operator ownership. We avoid conflicts of interest. We hyper-focus on building the best and most reliable software and supporting our operators' needs so they can deliver maximum value to their customers. We're working with the best operators worldwide both privately owned and publicly traded. Any organic M&A activity happening in this space almost exclusively happens on the Genesis Coin and Bitstop platforms for a reason. We have created a standard for the industry. The future is bright.

Q. Can you share anything about your future plans with Genesis Coin?

A. We can't say too much and we have some more exciting news coming. For now we can say we are evaluating technical synergies between both platforms. We want to help our operators become as hyper efficient as possible while making it easy to scale. There's still many pain points when it comes to operating which lead to excessive overhead. When you look at the traditional ATM space, many operators are still running up to five times the body count compared to a traditional ATM operation. We want to lower that inefficiency difference for Genesis Coin operators by at least 50% within the next two years. We have many ideas on how to accomplish this and believe that this will be a winning formula long-term.


Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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