El Salvador’s position as the fourth-largest crypto ATM hub was brief, as Australia stepped up its game in the following months.

El Salvador, the first country to adopt Bitcoin, has dropped another position in total crypto ATM installations as Australia records 216 ATMs as the year 2023 approaches.

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador planned to deploy over 200 crypto ATMs around the country as part of his efforts to establish Bitcoin as legal cash. While this move made El Salvador the third largest crypto ATM hub after the United States and Canada in September 2021, Spain and Australia overtook the Central American country’s ATM count in 2022.

According to sources, Spain installed 215 crypto ATMs, making it the third-largest hub for crypto ATMs as of October 2022. However, Spain kept up its installation campaign and, as of this writing, has 226 crypto ATMs. El Salvador’s reign as the fourth-largest center for crypto ATMs was brief because Australia improved during the ensuing months.

According to CoinATMRadar data, Australia installed 99 cryptocurrency ATMs in the final three months of 2022. Australia had 219 active crypto ATMs as of January 1, 2023, outnumbering El Salvador by 7 ATMs as of this writing.

At this rate, Asia’s 312 crypto ATMs, which make up 0.6% of all installations worldwide, might be surpassed by Australia’s 0.6% share. There are currently 38,602 crypto ATMs operating worldwide, 6,071 of which were set up in 2022.

The government of Nigeria was compelled to cap ATM cash withdrawals to $225 (100,000 naira) every week as a result of the country’s efforts to make the adoption of its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), known as eNaira.

The director of banking supervision, Haruna Mustafa, announced the initiative by saying, “Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to perform their banking activities.”