Bitcoin Depot Q2 revenue jumps 18% y/y as it plans ATM adds after NASDAQ listing

August 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin ATM

Bitcoin Depot records $197.5 million in revenue in the second quarter for 2023 spurred on by partnerships with various American retail stores.

United States based Bitcoin (BTC) ATM operator Bitcoin Depot said it posted best ever revenue numbers in the second quarter of 2023 as the company looks to expand its footprint after recently being listed on the NASDAQ.

Bitcoin Depot released its Q2 results in line with a number of cryptocurrency ecosystem firms, recording $197.5 million in quarterly revenue. The company notes that this is a record figure and an 18% increase from its revenue for the same period in 2022.

The company also reported that its net loss of $6.1 million was down by 249% year-over-year. Its second quarter profit stood at $25.9 million, while its gross profit margin was 13% for Q2 2023, up from 8% for the same period last year.

Bitcoin Depot founder and CEO Brandon Mintz said the company would be looking to continue growing through 2023 following its public listing on the NASDAQ. The listing took place on July 3 following the closing of a business merger with GSR II Meteora Acquisition Corp.

Bitcoin Depot has also announced a number of partnerships with convenience stores across the U.S., with an aim of increasing the number of Bitcoin access points across the country. Bitcoin Depot also carried out a software conversion of its ATM machines in February 2023 to BitAccess. The conversion reportedly cut out previous annual licensing fees which were incurring extra costs.

Bitcoin Depot is also building out its BDCheckout service as well as other software and operational services, which has allowed the company to tap into revenue streams from kiosk management software.

The company is forecasting a total revenue up to $730 million in 2023, which it tips as 13% improvement on its 2022 total of $647 million.

Data reflecting the net number Crypto ATMs globally. Source: Coin ATM Radar.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the Bitcoin ATM market took a downturn in regards to the number of operational machines across the U.S. in the first half of 2023. This trend took a positive turn in May 2023, with over 1000 BTC ATM installations reportedly taking place according to data from Coin ATM Radar.

Bitcoin ATM growth began a downward turn in late 2022, with the BTC ATM ecosystem recording negative growth in global net installations for the first time ever.

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Bitcoin ATM maker to refund customers impacted by zero-day hack

March 28, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin ATM

General Bytes has implemented several measures in the wake of the hack, including offering to reimburse its cloud-hosted customers and adding new security measures.

Bitcoin ATM manufacturer General Bytes says it is reimbursing its cloud-hosted customers that lost funds in a "security incident" in March that saw its customers' hot wallets accessed.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the ATM manufacturer issued a statement about a security incident on March 17 and March 18, which involved a hacker remotely uploading a Java application into its terminals and gaining access to sensitive information, such as passwords, private keys and funds from hot wallets.

In a recent statement to Cointelegraph, the ATM manufacturer said have since been moving swiftly to "address the situation" and has made the decision to refund its "cloud-hosted customers who have lost funds."

On March 17-18th, 2023, GENERAL BYTES experienced a security incident.

We released a statement urging customers to take immediate action to protect their personal information.

We urge all our customers to take immediate action to protect their funds and https://t.co/fajc61lcwR…
— GENERAL BYTES (@generalbytes) March 18, 2023

"We have taken immediate steps to prevent further unauthorized access to our systems and are working tirelessly to protect our customers," General Bytes said in a statement.

It was understood that the hack led to at least 56 BTC, worth over $1.5 million at current prices, and 21.82 ETH, $37,000 at current prices, being deposited into wallets connected to the hacker.

According to General Bytes, it has thoroughly assessed the damages from the hack and has been "working tirelessly" to improve security measures and prevent similar incidents from happening again.

*General Bytes told affected customers to implement new security measures after the hack. Source: General Bytes*

Along with the reimbursement for affected customers, the ATM manufacturer has also said they are encouraging all customers to migrate to a self-hosted server installation, where they can effectively secure their server platform using VPN.

"We are investing heavily in additional human resources to assist our clients in migrating their existing infrastructure to a self-hosted server installation."

According to General Bytes, the hack did not affect most ATM operators using self-hosted server installations" as these customers employ VPN technology to protect their infrastructure."

The ATM manufacturer first warned customers about the hacker in a March 18 patch release bulletin. As a result of the security breach, General Btyes shuttered its cloud services.

"General Bytes takes the security of our customers' funds and data very seriously. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and remain committed to serving our customers with integrity and professionalism.”

The company is based in Prague and according to its website has sold over 15,000 Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs to purchasers in over 149 countries all over the world.

Bitcoin ATM maker shuts cloud service after user hot wallets compromised

March 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

API keys

Bitcoin ATM manufacturer General Bytes said a hacker was able to install and run a Java application in its terminals that could access user information and send funds from hot wallets.

Bitcoin ATM manufacturer General Bytes has shuttered its cloud services after discovering a “security vulnerability” that allowed an attacker to access users' hot wallets and gain sensitive information, such as passwords and private keys.

The company is a Bitcoin (BTC) ATM manufacturer based in Prague, and according to its website, has sold over 15,000 ATMs to over 149 countries all over the world.

In a March 18 patch release bulletin, the ATM manufacturer issued a warning explaining that a hacker has been able to remotely upload and run a Java application via the master service interface into its terminals aimed at stealing user information and sending funds from hot wallets.

On March 17-18th, 2023, GENERAL BYTES experienced a security incident.

We released a statement urging customers to take immediate action to protect their personal information.

We urge all our customers to take immediate action to protect their funds and https://t.co/fajc61lcwR… https://t.co/g5FGqvqZQ7
— GENERAL BYTES (@generalbytes) March 18, 2023

General Byes founder Karel Kyovsky in the bulletin explained this allowed the hacker to achieve the following:

"Ability to access the database.
Ability to read and decrypt API keys used to access funds in hot wallets and exchanges.
Send funds from hot wallets.
Download user names, their password hashes and turn off 2FA.
Ability to access terminal event logs and scan for any instance where customers scanned private key at the ATM. Older versions of ATM software were logging this information."

The notice reveals that both General Bytes' cloud service was breached as well as other operators' standalone severs.

“We’ve concluded multiple security audits since 2021, and none of them identified this vulnerability,” Kyovsky said.

Hot wallets compromised

Though the company noted that the hacker was able to “Send funds from hot wallets,” it did not disclose how much was stolen as a result of the breach.

However, General Bytes released the details of 41 wallet addresses that were used in the attack. On-chain data shows multiple transactions into one of the wallets, resulting in a total balance of 56 BTC, worth over $1.54 million at current prices.

*General Bytes released the details of 41 wallet addresses used in the attack. Source: General Bytes*

Another wallet shows multiple Ether (ETH) transactions, with the total received amounting to 21.82 ETH, worth roughly $36,000 at current prices.

Cointelegraph reached out to General Bytes for confirmation but did not receive a reply before publication.

The company has urgently advised BTC ATM operators to install their own standalone server and released two patches for their Crypto Application Server (CAS), which manages the ATM's operation.

*General Bytes is a Bitcoin ATM manufacturer based in Prague that has sold over 15,000 ATMs worldwide. Source: General Bytes*

"Please keep your CAS behind a firewall and VPN. Terminals should also connect to CAS via VPN," Kyovsky wrote.

"Additionally consider all your user's passwords, and API keys to exchanges and hot wallets to be compromised. Please invalidate them and generate new keys & password."

General Bytes previously had its servers compromised via a zero-day attack in September last year that enabled hackers to make themselves the default administrators and modify settings so that all funds would be transferred.

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9 years after the first Bitcoin ATM, there are now 38,804 globally

October 31, 2022 Coin Telegraph

ATM

From one Candian coffee shop to a worldwide network of nearly 39,000, crypto ATMs have turned nine years old and are only expected to continue growing.

On Oct. 29, 2013, a coffee shop in downtown Vancouver, Canada opened what is understood to be the world’s first publicly available Bitcoin (BTC) automatic teller machine (ATM) operated by Robocoin.

The crypto ATM saw 348 transactions and $100,000 transacted in its first week of operation.

As of Oct. 30, 2022 — nine years and one day on — Robocoin has ceased operations and the first crypto ATM has likely been removed or replaced, but crypto ATMs have continued to increase in number with 38,804 cryptocurrency ATMs in existence today, according to Coin ATM Radar.

The global hub for crypto ATMs has since moved however, with the United States now housing nearly 88% of the world’s supply of crypto ATMs and taking credit for 90% of all newly installed ATMs over the past few months.

In October alone, 129 of the world’s newly installed ATMs were located in the United States out of a total of 205.

Canada, home to the first crypto ATM, has only seen that number creep to 566 after nine years, though it’s still placing in second at 6.6% of the total, as per Coin ATM Radar data.

Meanwhile, Spain became the third-largest crypto ATM hub on Oct. 22 with its 0.6% share across 215 ATMs.

A July report from Research and Markets estimates the crypto ATM space is now valued at $46.4 million, which will grow more than 10 times to $472 million by 2027, driven by remittances and increased crypto ATM installations.

However, like many crypto-related products, crypto ATM installations have been challenged this year as a result of the crypto bear market.

Crypto ATM installations slowed between January and May before a slight recovery between June and August, but September saw net crypto ATMs drop globally for the first time ever after 459 machines were removed from the global network.

Bitcoin is still the most popular cryptocurrency transacted across crypto-enabled ATMs with nearly 100% supporting BTC transactions per Coin ATM Radar. However, other cryptos also appear to be supported across the network.

Litecoin (LTC) is popular with almost 81% of ATMs supporting the crypto, and Ether (ETH) closely follows at almost 74%, Dogecoin (DOGE) sits in fourth place with just under 40% supporting the so-called memecoin.

In early October U.S. authorities warned crypto ATMs were emerging as a popular method for scammers to receive value and defraud victims most often in “pig butchering” scams where the attacker poses as a potential romantic partner, gaining trust and asking the victim to send them money, or in some cases, cryptocurrency.