New customers depositing at least €50 with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, rose by 400 per cent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at “a few thousand”. The average deposit quadrupled to around €700.
Last month, the first two-way bitcoin ATM (bitcoin to euro and vice versa) was opened in downtown Athens at The Cube, a co-working space that houses innovative business start-ups.
The two-way ATM was installed by Spanish start-up Bitchain. Joaquin Fenoy, the company’s technology officer, believes the machine could help as Greece’s banking crisis continues.
Capital controls on Greek banks do not apply to the bitcoin outlet.
The bitcoin is an entirely digital currency and unavailable in coins or banknotes. It is not produced by any particular country or controlled by any bank.
Production, storage, handling and transactions are in electronic form.
Source: Coinfox, Reuters