Since the beginning of May 2022, the Saturn Cologne Hohe Straße, Saturn Frankfurt Zeil and Saturn Dortmund City stores have had Bitcoin vending machines . As part of a six-month pilot project, customers can easily convert euro notes into Bitcoins or Ethereum at machines of the cooperation partner Kurant and load them onto their digital wallet.
The whole thing had already been tested before (2019) at Media Markt in Austria and expanded further in 2022. The partnership was successful.
The process: After a one-time initial registration, the customer downloads a wallet app onto his or her smartphone. In the next step, the amount is selected at the machine. The app then generates a QR code – the address of the wallet. The code is scanned at the machine, the desired amount is deposited in cash and the corresponding bitcoin amount is credited to the digital wallet.
Following a successful Bitcoin ATM pilot in Austria, MediaMarkt, a German electronics store, concluded that Austrians have “sufficient finances” for more Bitcoin ATMs.
Kurant and MediaMarkt have already worked together to install Bitcoin ATMs in respective locations, Kurant, an ATM business, manages over 200 Bitcoin ATMs in Austria, Germany, Spain, and Greece, while MediaMarkt has installed Bitcoin ATMs in 12 branches around the nation.
Bitcoin vending machines have been installed at MediaMarkt outlets around the country. These are currently available in twelve marketplaces and allow for the simple and safe purchase of cryptocurrencies.
A successful pilot project with a single Bitcoin ATM at a MediaMarkt shop shown that “Bitcoin ATMs in businesses provide a potential to attract new customers.”
