Crypto's New Era: From ATM Closures to Strategic Reserves
The sun is setting on a volatile day in crypto, and the mood is equal parts uneasy and opportunistic. From bankrupt Bitcoin ATMs to record ETF flows and a looming U.S. “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” the space is reshaping itself in real time. Let’s start with the day’s biggest gut punch to crypto’s physical footprint. Bitcoin Depot, once North America’s largest network of Bitcoin ATMs, has filed for Chapter 11 and taken its roughly 9,000 kiosks offline. The company is blaming mounting regulatory pressure, and its collapse raises a blunt question: is the era of physical Bitcoin infrastructure fading just as digital rails and compliant custodians take center stage? For everyday users who first touched crypto at a mall kiosk, this feels like the end of a chapter. At the same time, governments are not shying away from Bitcoin (BTC) itself. Iran is rolling out “Hormuz Safe,” a Bitcoin-based shipping insurance platform tied to one of the world’s most strategically tense chokepoints, th...