Finland's capital's largest shopping mall welcomes first Bitcoin ATM

Yesterday, Bittiraha.fi and Bitcoinkaupat.com, two of Finland's leading Bitcoin companies, jointly installed the first Bitcoin ATM in the largest shopping mall in the Finnish capital. The Nordic Bitcoin companies have finally started to build a Bitcoin ATM network, and the two companies hope to gradually turn the Finnish capital Helsinki into the "Bitcoin capital" of Europe.

Now, citizens can experience this Bitcoin ATM in person. This is a brand new Bitcoin ATM that supports two-way transactions and is located on the second floor of the ITIS Shopping Center in East Helsinki.

Aleksi Vitakoski of Bitcoinkaupat.com said in an official statement:

“Installing a Bitcoin ATM in Itis will attract people’s attention. If my hunch is correct, it will be a big step towards making Helsinki the Bitcoin capital of Europe.”

Among the Nordic countries interested in Bitcoin, Finland ranks in the top 3 and is one of the countries with the highest Bitcoin usage rate in the world. With the installation of the new Bitcoin ATM in ITIS, the two companies hope that more merchants in Finland will start accepting Bitcoin.

Henry Brade, founder of Bittiraha.fi, said:

“Our Bitcoin ATM network is profitable and we have achieved a good return on investment. Before, we only treated Bitcoin ATMs as a hobby, but now we will treat it as a business.”

Bittiraha.fi is Finland's leading bitcoin service provider, with a monthly bitcoin transaction volume of about one million euros, providing users with the ability to buy and sell digital currencies through bank accounts. It also offers bitcoin services for bill and salary payments.

According to Henry Brade, this Bitcoin ATM is the second new two-way transaction ATM in the Bittiraha.fi network, which also has seven other one-way transaction ATMs. Their first two-way transaction Bitcoin ATM was installed in December 2014 in Kamppi, one of Finland’s most popular shopping malls.

“We have four Bitcoin ATMs in Helsinki and one in Espoo. We will soon install a one-way transaction Bitcoin ATM in the northern city of Finland, which will bring our total to 10 Bitcoin ATMs.”

He continued:

“The biggest challenge we face is getting Bitcoin ATMs to work in large shopping malls and other high-end places. People are still skeptical about Bitcoin, so we have a lot of work to do. But on the positive side, it’s getting better. We now have a Bitcoin ATM in ITIS, Finland’s largest shopping mall. I believe that Bitcoin ATMs will be installed in more places in the future.”

Founded in 2014, Bitcoin startup Bitcoinkaupat.com has become Finland’s leading Bitcoin payment provider, offering risk-free Bitcoin payment integration services to large and small companies.

Speaking about competitors in the Bitcoin ATM industry, Henry Brade mentioned:

“There is a Bitcoin ATM operator that also has two Bitcoin ATMs in Helsinki. Other competitors include LocalBitcoins. But we are clearly the market leader in Finland.”

Original article: http://cointelegraph.com/news/115743/the-first-btm-opens-in-finlands-largest-shopping-centre-itis
By Erin Lace
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/bitcoin-atm-finland)