Bitcoin for All? This Crypto Company Wants to Boost Access Around the Globe

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The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Bitcoin (BTC) was promised as a possible financial revolution — a way to wrest power from large, centralized institutions and give it to the people. To decentralize and democratize. As Bitcoin and the larger crypto market matures, however, this is becoming less and less true. 

Huge institutional investors, like BNY Mellon BK, Citibank C, Morgan Stanley MS, and Goldman Sachs GS, are entering the market in droves and in the same fashion as our legacy financial system, the wealth is concentrating at the top. Less than 10% of Bitcoin Wallets hold more than 90% of the world’s supply.

Barriers to Entry

The more retail investors that enter the market, the more balance might be had. As it stands, however, it is estimated that only 1.3% of the world’s population owns any Bitcoin. A driving factor in this is access. A multitude of barriers to entering the market exist for the majority of people around the globe.

Many people — 79 million in the U.S. alone — are unbanked or underbanked, meaning they primarily use cash for all transactions. This excludes them from the majority of exchanges that require a bank account.

Oftentimes people need access to their funds immediately, they cannot afford to wait for lengthy verification processes common on most exchanges. Additionally, a large number of individuals around the globe may be wary of crypto exchanges and be concerned considering recent hacking events that have occurred.

Providing Access

One company trying to fix this imbalance — Coinme — believes that the more people who have access to Bitcoin, the healthier the market. It is committed to breaking down these barriers by bridging the gap between Bitcoin and legacy financial services.

Coinme has created an application programming interface (API) that integrates with traditional financial systems to make buying bitcoin simple, instant, safe, and perhaps most importantly, an all-cash affair.

It currently has partnerships with Outerwall Inc. OUTR, formerly Coinstar, Inc., and MoneyGram  MGI. That means that anyone can buy Bitcoin with cash at thousands of locations across the U.S. — in places that are convenient to someone’s daily life. It is instantly available to them in a wallet on Coinme’s website or smartphone app. No waiting for verification and no account holds.

Users can rest assured that their funds are safe and secure. One of Coinme’s core tenants is regulatory rigor. It takes security and compliance with governmental regulations very seriously.

Democratizing access to Bitcoin could be critical to realizing the promise of a more equitable financial world. Coinme is committed to providing all people with access to the market, not just the wealthy and technically capable. With locations across the U.S. and plans to expand worldwide, it looks to be well on its way to accomplishing just that.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.