Canadian Exchange CAVIRTEX to Launch Bitcoin ATMs Across Canada

Canadian digital currency exchange CAVIRTEX has announced plans to relaunch a balance deposit feature and establish a new network of branded ATMs.

The company revealed the plans in a 1st May message to customers, outlining a number of future services improvements, which include a new trading API and merchant user interface.

CoinDesk spoke with CAVIRTEX business development manager Reed Holmes, who framed the choice to relaunch the bill deposit option as a bid to make it easier for people to move their money into the marketplace:

"We’re very excited to offer this service again. We feel like it’s something our customers really liked when we had it before, and we hope that they’re excited to see it again."

From cash to coins

The planned in-person bill payment deposit option, which does not have a set launch date, was initially offered to customers in 2013 before being discontinued last September. Under the service, customers can make deposits via Money Mart, a consumer financial services chain.

Customers need to have a verified account to use the in-person bill payment option, which generates an invoice for the deposit amount.

Users can then bring this invoice to a Money Mart location, which processes the invoice and completes the deposit. There is a deposit limit of CA$9,500 per day, with a monthly maximum of CA$90,000.

Although there is no set launch date yet, Holmes said the company planned to accept in-person bill payments “soon”.

Plans for future ATM network

CAVIRTEX is also in the early stages of planning a bitcoin ATM network.

Holmes told CoinDesk that right now, the company is focused on researching the idea and determining how exactly the network would be composed:

“There are a lot of different moving parts there – who’s going to be operating, where are they going to be operated from – there’s quite a bit, obviously as you can imagine, that goes into it. We’re still getting all that stuff together.”

Holmes added that the company is in contact with several ATM manufacturers but has not made any purchase decisions. Additionally, CAVIRTEX has no concrete timeline for when the ATM network would begin to be deployed.

The exchange is also in the process of vetting potential ATM operators.

Image via CAVIRTEX