As Mexico prepares to regulate cryptoassets, the country’s Senate building in Mexico City has gotten its own Bitcoin ATM. The machine came from Bitcoin ATM manufacturer ChainBytes in cooperation with operator Axolotl Bitcoin.
According to a press release, the Bitcoin ATM was installed in a bid to support the efforts of Mexican Senator Indira Kempis in making the flagship cryptocurrency legal in Mexico. The goal is to help lawmakers in the country experience cryptoasset transactions firsthand and get familiar with BTC.
The ATM was installed with the support of multiple legislators, including Miguel Ángel Mancera, the coordinator of the parliamentary group of the Part of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), according to El Heraldo de Mexico. This is the 14th cryptocurrency ATM being installed in the country, with other machines being in Tijuana, Cancún, Guadalajara, and other locations.
The first Bitcoin ATM was installed in the country back in 2014, in Tijuana, and included support for Litecoin ($LTC) and the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin ($DOGE). It was launched by Bitcoin42, which at the time claimed these were the first Bitcoin ATMs in Latin America.
In Mexico’s Senate building, the ATM will remain on the first floor for a week, before being “available for future workshops and events in the Senate and in Senator Indira Kempis’ offices.”
Despite Senator Kempis’ attempt to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country, Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the founder and chairman of Mexican conglomerate Grupo Salinas and the third richest person in the country, believes this is an “uphill battle.”
The battle to make BTC legal tender in Mexico comes in a bid to increase the country’s competitiveness in the world and improve financial services in the country.
Other countries in Latin America have already moved to adopt cryptoassets. Brazil’s Senate has recently approved a ‘Bitcoin Law’, that was first proposed in 2015, and allows Brazil’s executive branch to create rules on virtual assets.
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The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
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