Cryptocurrencies have been of great interest to companies and service providers alike. In particular, companies dabbling in the Bitcoin ATM business will be making a lot of improvements in the future, including integrating support for altcoins. Most recently, Athena Bitcoin, a well-known operator in the US, added Bitcoin Cash support to their machines.

Athena Bitcoin Makes an Interesting Decision

No one will deny Bitcoin Cash has made a big impact on the cryptocurrency industry. A lot of people have very strong opinions on this altcoin, for better or worse. It is still too early to tell if BCH is the real vision of Satoshi Nakamoto, even though it is a bit more peer-to-peer than the actual Bitcoin is at times. Opinions on this front are divided as well, even though companies have been showing a keen interest in Bitcoin Cash lately.

With growing demand for Bitcoin Cash right now, ATM operators will need to come up with a plan for being part of this budding ecosystem at some point. Some operators are already making an impact by adding Bitcoin Cash support to their platforms. It is a decision that will bring positive attention to some companies, whereas others may not necessarily benefit.

In the case of Athena Bitcoin, the addition of Bitcoin Cash is quite an interesting choice for many reasons. The company’s ATMs will not necessarily be dropping Bitcoin anytime soon, mind you, even though the addition of Bitcoin Cash may present some additional competition between the two. With their ATMs located in a few different US states, it will be interesting to see if BCH is more popular in specific states than others.

Moreover, the company also operates some two-way machines, which means there will be a way for users to convert their Bitcoin Cash back to fiat currency as well. With both currencies now on the table, and an option to convert BCH to fiat on the fly, Athena Bitcoin is one of the first major US Bitcoin ATM operators to integrate both versions of Bitcoin in such a manner. Whether or not others will follow still remains to be seen.

So far, the Bitcoin community doesn’t seem to be too happy with this added competition in the form of Bitcoin Cash. BCH community members, on the other hand, are quite happy about this development, even though it is only accessible in the United States right now. If Bitcoin Cash gets added to major ATMs across the world, things will get interesting. Lamassu has done so in the past, and it seems other companies may follow its example in the future.

Decisions like these will always cause an uproar among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, especially because Athena Bitcoin seems to be convinced that BCH is the real vision of Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a sentiment which has been uttered by other service providers in the past, and there will be quite a lot of backlash over it for a while. The only thing that really matters is whether or not this move was a smart business decision. Only time will tell if that is the case.