Indian Cryptocurrency Exchange Unicorn Plans to Launch the Country’s First Crypto ATM
The Indian cryptocurrency market is going through a rough phase, especially after its central bank dried up all the fiat resources flowing to the exchanges. However, despite the government crackdown of the crypto market, curious Indian investors continue to find ways to participate in crypto market through foreign exchanges.
In a major twist of events, homegrown cryptocurrency exchange Unicorn plans to set up the country’s first crypto ATM. Unocoin founder Sathvik Vishwanath told that the company is working on the placements of the ATM.
The strategic location is quite important considering the crypto-centric young crowd. The crypto ATM machines will likely be placed in malls having adequate infrastructure for its working. Vishwanath said that the company will release more details about it in a week’s time.
Speaking to Inc42, Vishwanath said, “The placement of the ATM is in the development phase. It may take a week’s time before we release details through official statement — once we have all the pieces of it working together.”
The first machine is installed at 147 MG Road in Delhi. The company posted an image of the crypto ATM on Twitter showing logos of five cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ripple’s XRP, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. Furthermore, the ATM says that it is exclusively available for Unocoin customers and that “credit and debit cards are not accepted.”
Earlier this year in January 2018, Unocoin shared details about how the crypto ATM works. The details shows that the crypto ATM will allow you buy/sell all the supported cryptocurrencies. However, ATM users will have to shares personal ID details like passport, driving details, etc. to prove their identity. To do any type of transactions, the machine might ask for OTP which will be available on the registered mobile number of Unicorn customer.
A number of crypto companies across the globe are installing crypto ATMs making it easy for investors to buy/sell the digital assets. Nearly, ,879 cryptocurrency ATMs are currently operational in 76 countries. Launched five years back in 2013, Unicorn has over 1.2 million customers based in India.
Due to the change in the regulatory environment, cryptocurrency exchanges in India are finding it difficult to run their operations. Last month itself, Zebpay announced to close down all of its operations.
The exchange said: “The recent past has been extremely difficult. The curb on bank accounts has crippled our, and our customer’s, ability to transact business meaningfully. At this point, we are unable to find a reasonable way to conduct the cryptocurrency exchange business. As a result, we are stopping our exchange activities.”