{"id":27858,"date":"2022-09-02T23:04:32","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T23:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=27858"},"modified":"2022-09-02T23:04:32","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T23:04:32","slug":"cryptocurrency-atms-popping-up-throughout-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=27858","title":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrency ATMs popping up throughout California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t<span>David Lazarus<\/span>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nxsttv.com\/nmw\/?post_type=profile&amp;p=7076\" title=\"Posts by Nexstar Media Wire\" class=\"author url fn\" rel=\"author noopener\">Nexstar Media Wire<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tPosted: Sep 2, 2022 \/ 04:11 PM CDT<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"article-meta--sep\"> | <\/span>Updated: Sep 2, 2022 \/ 04:16 PM CDT\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!-- .article-meta --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"article-featured-media\">\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>(<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ktla.com\/news\/local-news\/crypto-atms-are-popping-up-throughout-california\/\" rel=\"noopener\">KTLA<\/a>) \u2014 When you think of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/business\/tech\/tech-headlines\/explainer-how-cryptocurrencies-work-and-how-they-dont\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/business\/tech\/tech-headlines\/explainer-how-cryptocurrencies-work-and-how-they-dont\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">buying or selling cryptocurrency<\/a>, a high-tech trading floor might come to mind. Maybe you think of state-of-the-art apps.<\/p>\n<p>What you probably don\u2019t think of is an ATM in a gas-station convenience store or payday-loan shop.<\/p>\n<p>Increasingly, however, that\u2019s how many working-class people are encountering crypto. And consumer advocates say this may not be a good thing.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThese ATMs are being put in places where retail consumers who don\u2019t have a lot of information about investing, but are excited about cryptocurrency and want to get involved, are most likely to find them,\u201d said Mark Hays, senior policy analyst for the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform.<\/p>\n<p>There are roughly 2,000 crypto ATMs in Los Angeles, mostly dealing in Bitcoin. They allow people to exchange dollars for digital currency for a fee of about 15%.<\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\">\n\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/on-balance-with-leland-vittert\/california-asks-ev-owners-to-cut-back-on-charging\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tCalifornia asks EV owners to cut back on charging\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThis is something weird,\u201d Anas Elshahawy, a cashier at a Crenshaw District convenience store, told NewsNation affiliate KTLA.<\/p>\n<p>He said about a half-dozen people use his shop\u2019s Bitcoin machine each week.<\/p>\n<p>Experts warn, however, that using these machines can be risky.<\/p>\n<p>Remember the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9hBC5TVdYT8&amp;ab_channel=CryptoCom\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9hBC5TVdYT8&amp;ab_channel=CryptoCom\">\u201cFortune Favours the Brave\u201d commercial <\/a>for Crypto.com featuring Matt Damon? Since the ad debuted last October, Bitcoin has declined in value by about 60%.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, if you invested $1,000 following Damon\u2019s advice, you\u2019d now have maybe $400 to show for it.<\/p>\n<p>Crypto ATMs can be used to transfer money abroad, particularly to El Salvador, which made Bitcoin a national currency.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\">\n\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/us-news\/immigration\/migrant-talks-journey-to-nyc\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\u2018We come here to work\u2019: Migrant describes journey to NYC\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>The industry says the machines allow people without bank accounts to dabble in digital currencies. On the other hand, critics said they\u2019re also used by drug dealers and fraudsters to launder cash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re well aware that there is the belief that only criminals use it, that only nefarious activity and scam victims go to ATMs,\u201d said Seth Sattler, executive director of the Cryptocurrency Compliance Cooperative, an industry group.\u201dSo as an industry, we\u2019re trying actively to prevent that to the best of our ability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hays said there may be nothing untoward about most crypto transactions. But he emphasizes that largely unregulated digital currencies are often more like gambling than investing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPutting your money into a Bitcoin ATM and hoping that you\u2019ll watch the line go up and make bank, it\u2019s equivalent to going into a casino,\u201d he said. \u201cSure, you can make some money. But the odds are generally stacked against you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/business\/your-money\/cryptocurrency-atms-california-bitcoin-los-angeles\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Lazarus, Nexstar Media Wire Posted: Sep 2, 2022 \/ 04:11 PM CDT | Updated: Sep 2, 2022 \/ 04:16 PM CDT (KTLA) \u2014 When you think of buying or selling cryptocurrency, a high-tech trading floor might come to mind. Maybe you think of state-of-the-art apps. What you probably don\u2019t think of is an ATM [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[36],"tags":[1635,1329,52,10452],"class_list":["post-27858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-atms","tag-california","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-popping"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/GettyImages-1410013977.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27860,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27858\/revisions\/27860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}