Biggest Shopping Mall Brand in America, Simon Malls, Collaborates with Bitstop Bitcoin ATM Provider

Florida-based Bitcoin (BTC) automatic teller machines (ATM) venture Bitstop has entered into a collaboration with Simon Malls. Simon Malls is the biggest operator of shopping malls in the United States of America and the deal entails the installation of Bitcoin ATMs. These machines are going to be in different places.

The announcement was made on the 26^th of November and disclosed that the venture had already put in place Bitcoin ATMs at five locations. These were installed in Simon Malls locations in different areas in Florida, Georgia, and California. It is definitely an exciting development for Bitstop. Their co-founder and chief executive officer Andrew Barnard expressed himself on the issue regarding the installation of the machines as the holidays are approaching.

Good Moves

Barnard described the move as a strategic one and that the timing of the new installation of Bitcoin machines at Simon Mall outlets were well thought out. He said that it is to comfortably allow customers to get their digital currencies while enjoying the best of Christmas and Black Friday shopping. Bitstop says that it has the needed license and that it is also regulated. It is working on expanding its teller machine network and it is truly an ambitious move. It wants to place its machines in more than 500 locations before 2020 runs out. This was confirmed by the chief executive officer Barnard.

Right Steps, Right Direction

This collaboration is based on the venture’s earlier installation of a Bitcoin machine at the Miami International Airport. The announcement for that particular one was made in the middle of October. It is the right step in the right direction as all over the globe, the number of Bitcoin ATMs put in place is shattering records. The figures at the time revealed that there were more than 6,000 such machines all across the globe and almost 70% of these machines were located in the United States of America.

But even at that, the regulatory agencies are becoming more cautious every step of the way. For example, the United States Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Chief John Fort made a revelation recently. He said that their agency is already investigating possible tax problems emanating from kiosks and digital currency machines.

That is not even all. Apart from the potential issues that can pop up in relation to tax matters, Fort says the IRS is still interested in some other cases. He revealed that those behind crypto kiosks have to adhere to some of the same conventional policies that others in the same sector are also made to follow. He made specific examples of the Know Your Customer concept and policies put in place to tackle money laundering and other transactions related to cryptocurrencies. It is certain that not even the moves made by IRS are going to stop the bitcoin operators from doing their business and forming partnerships to expand their businesses. It is left to the government agencies and other regulators to see how best they will coordinate the sector for maximum gain of the stakeholders.