American retail giant Walmart has been quietly adding support for Bitcoin to its Coinstar machines in dozens of stores across the United States. 

According to a report by CoinDesk, Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue, is increasing Bitcoin adoption across the U.S. via the addition of support for crypto to the Coinstar kiosks in some of its stores.

Walmart communications director Molly Blakeman told CoinDesk in an email:

Coinstar, in partnership with Coinme, has launched a pilot that allows its customers to use cash to purchase bitcoin. 

According to Ms. Blakeman, there are 200 Coinstar kiosks located inside Walmart stores across the country that are taking part in the pilot program.

On 17 January 12019, Coinme, America’s first licensed Bitcoin ATM operator, and Coinstar, which owns and operates around thousands of fully-automated self-service coin-counting kiosks aross the world, announced that they had entered into a partnership that allows Coinstar kiosks, which are mostly located in U.S. grocery stores and supermarkets, to sell Bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for cash (USD).

According to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on the Coinme website, Bitcoin can be purchased at participating retailers that have Coinstar kiosks enabled for the Coinme product. Only paper money (and not coins) can be used to buy Bitcoin from these kiosks.

Per the Jan 2019 press release, here are the steps to buying Bitcoin from a Coinme-powered Coinstar kiosk:

  • “Go to a select Coinstar kiosk, touch “Buy Bitcoin,” review and accept the transaction terms, and enter your phone number.”
  • “Insert U.S. paper money into the cash acceptor (any amount up to $2,500).”
  • “Receive a voucher with a Bitcoin redemption code.”
  • “Visit www.coinme.com/redeem to create a Coinme account or sign in to your existing account to claim your Bitcoin.”

Disclaimer

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