Buy Bitcoin at Coinstar Kiosks: A Convenient New Option

You Can Now Buy Bitcoin at Coinstar Kiosks

Coinme and Coinstar are teaming to bring Bitcoin to Coinstar. You can now buy Bitcoin at Coinstar Kiosks at local grocery stores around the country.

Check out the official press release and a video of a crypto talking head doing it.

The pros here are:

1. There are Coinstar machines located at grocery stores around the country, and people are already used to interacting with them.
2. A simple way for everyone to change their spare change into Bitcoin and/or to buy Bitcoin without having to deal with online exchanges.

The Cons here are:

1. High fees (4% on the video I saw).
2. Slight premium vs. market price (like you might find with Coinbase, but not with limit orders on Coinbase Pro).

In short, a newcomer might still be better off with Square (for pure investment) or Coinbase / Coinbase Pro (for really getting into the crypto space), but it is for sure very cool to have Coinstar doubling as a place to buy Bitcoin and honestly with the volatility of Bitcoin I’m  not so sure I really consider 4% fees to be a deal breaker when it comes to turning my change drawer into Bitcoin.

Keep reading to learn how to buy Bitcoin at Coinstar Kiosks. In short, you put in money, get a redemption ticket, and then redeem it at www.coinme.com/redeem.

How to Buy Bitcoin at Coinstar Kiosks

According to the site,

Coinstar owns and operates over 20,000 fully automated self-service coin-counting kiosks in nine countries, with thousands in the U.S. market that can be enabled to accept Bitcoin transactions.

There are just four simple steps to purchase Bitcoin at a Coinstar kiosk, powered by Coinme:

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

Only U.S. cash is accepted for purchase, and coins cannot be used for Bitcoin transactions. To find a kiosk location, visit www.coinme.com/kiosks or www.coinstar.com.

To learn more, visit www.coinme.com/coinstar and www.coinstar.com/bitcoin.