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The best BTC business you’ve never heard of

Bitcoin ATMs can be lucrative businesses — ones that might provide investors with an overlooked opportunity.

This is a guest post from Second Gate Advisory Cofounder Brandon Bailey. Nothing in this article constitutes investment advice.

There are about 520,000 traditional ATMs in the U.S., per research from ATMIA and RBR. Compare that to about 30,000 bitcoin ATMs, per CoinATMRadar data.

Of the bitcoin ATM companies, Bitcoin Depot is the largest operator in North America with over 8,400 kiosks across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Australia.

One strategic relationship that makes Bitcoin Depot stand out? Circle K. The company currently operates over 900 kiosks in the US and Canada, putting bitcoin front-and-center for many American and Canadians.

Historically, Bitcoin Depot has a feature many in the exchange game would envy: low correlation between transaction volumes and bitcoin price fluctuations.

Why? Customers of these kiosks are typically buying bitcoin for non-speculative uses such as remittances.

Let’s dig into some financials 👇️ 

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• Bitcoin Depot had an incredibly strong first quarter with a reported Q1 revenue of $164.2 million up 19% year-over-year, as well as a significant improvement in net income of $12.2 million.

• Bitcoin Depot earned just $16 million of net income for FY 2024.

• The company generated adjusted gross profit of $33.1 million, up 92% year-over-year, and adjusted EBITDA of $20.3 million, up 315% year-over-year.

• Q1 adjusted EBITDA represents 54% of FY 2024 adjusted EBTIDA.

• The company also generated $16.3 million in cash from operations and $15.9 million in free cash flow for the quarter.

Bitcoin ATMs vs. bitcoin mining

Because of the underlying currency–bitcoin–and the cash flowing nature of the ATMs, the bitcoin ATM business is ripe for comparison against one of our favorite subjects: bitcoin mining.

• Bitcoin ATMs cost on average between $4,000 - $6,000 per unit depending on the type of machine and the manufacturer.

• Comparatively, the newest generation AISCs cost about $4,860 ($18 per TH) to $6,480 ($24 per TH). 

ATMs have an average daily revenue of $212. Compare that to an S21 XP’s bitcoin mining revenue over the same time period of $14 per day. 

Based on Bitcoin Depot’s Q1 2025 financial performance, they achieved net revenue of $43 per day per machine, versus an S21 XP’s net revenue of $11 during the same time period (assuming a power cost of $0.035 per kWh, which is at the low end of the range for mining).

Bitcoin ATMs have been able to achieve a faster payback period when historically compared to the most efficient bitcoin mining machines.

Why? There’s no revenue impairment by something like bitcoin mining’s difficulty adjustment, which makes it more challenging to mine bitcoin as more miners join the network and hashrate increases.

Because bitcoin ATM operators do not have to worry about a mechanism like the difficulty adjustment, the economic useful life of a bitcoin ATM exceeds that of an ASIC, reducing the required CAPEX to maintain cash flow and grow the business.

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