To recap, Bitcoin already became fully legal in an entire country back in September 2021. We’re talking about El Salvador – that’s when the local government officially allowed businesses to accept BTC as payment from the country’s citizens. However, while the news was positive for the cryptocurrency industry, for El Salvador’s economy itself the adoption of Bitcoin was a real test.

In general, the prospect of Bitcoin being adopted as a means of payment in some countries has been widely discussed of late. For example, the day before, Brian Armstrong, head of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, suggested the authorities in Brazil and Argentina get in touch with Bitcoin. According to him, such a decision would prove beneficial in the long run.

Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong

That said, Brian’s idea has been criticised. However, Bitcoin network itself is not suitable for mass transactions because of its technical limitations. And the experience of El Salvador government’s investments in BTCs is also not to be forgotten: as of today, the country’s position is down 47 percent or $51 million.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin position today

Where is Bitcoin accepted?

According to CryptoSlate sources, in January 2022 Rogers introduced US Senate Bill SB 1341, which would make Bitcoin legal tender. Unfortunately, the initiative did not receive adequate support among officials.

Note that the reluctance to recognise Bitcoin on the part of US officials is quite evident. One may recall the example of El Salvador, where representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended that the authorities stop considering BTC an official tender. U.S. senators also made it clear that they considered El Salvador's move a threat to the U.S. financial system. So the American authorities clearly have an interest in the continued hegemony of the dollar.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Buquele

Rogers’ new bill under SB 1235 proposes to change the definition of the term legal tender to integrate BTC into existing legal processes within the state of Arizona. Unfortunately, this initiative is also unlikely to succeed. The thing is that the US Constitution prohibits individual states from creating new payment instruments within their borders.

As there is no prospect of such an idea being approved, it initially seems rather strange. Obviously, it should be taken as an acknowledgement of the prospects of the first cryptocurrency by an official. Alternatively, representatives of various outlets will instantly convert cryptocurrencies into fiat in order to avoid Bitcoin's recognition as a means of payment. However, such a possibility already exists in the US.

US Senator Wendy Rogers

The very news of such proposals from American officials really speaks volumes. The topic of crypto market development has long been actively discussed even in the highest US government circles. And the further this goes on, the fewer options the government has – it simply cannot ignore the development of crypto.

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Aside from political games, the US also ranks as the number one country in the world in terms of cryptocurrencies.

Increase in the number of crypto machines in the US

The second place in the ranking went to Canada.

Increase in the number of crypto machines in Canada

Finally, in third place went to Australia, which has proved to be the growth leader in recent months.

Growth in the number of crypto machines in Australia

Having said that, the country was a few weeks lower in the ranking. At the time of writing, Australia already has 234 crypto machines installed.

As you can see from the graph, the dramatic increase in the number of devices started the day before. In the last three months of 2022 alone, Australia deployed 99 cryptocurrencies in its territory, which at the time was almost half of the total number there. The rate of growth has not slowed: Australia now has 16 new machines since 1 January.

As a reminder, experienced cryptocurrency users don't usually mess with cryptomats. After all, the latter require time-consuming identity verification and also tend to have rather unprofitable rates. So it's much easier to exchange or even withdraw crypto into fiat with exchanges.

In addition, the first crypto machine with an integrated second-tier Bitcoin solution called Lightning Network appeared in Coolangatta, Australia this month. It works similarly to traditional cryptomats, but allows users to purchase even a fairly small portion of a single bitcoin much faster. In addition, the fees for such transactions turn out to be very low, reports Cointelegraph.

Overall, the second half of the previous year has been a tough one for cryptocurrency companies. Between July and the end of 2022, only 94 cryptocurrencies were added to the global device network. By comparison, 4169 cryptomats were installed in the first half of 2022. The reason for the slowdown is the prolonged bearish trend in the cryptocurrency industry, as well as the global crisis in the global financial system.

Given these conditions, it is difficult to get investors interested in digital assets, and maintaining crypto machines is costly. Consequently, with low demand for services, it is only a matter of time before the vending machines are liquidated.


In our view, we should not expect Bitcoin to be fully recognised as official tender in the US, as it would be in violation of the US constitution. However, such proposals are noteworthy in any case, because they speak of recognition of cryptocurrencies even at the level of the authorities. Perhaps the reputation of digital assets will improve considerably over time.