The cryptocurrency world was excited about unsubstantiated rumors that Amazon planned to support cryptocurrency payments. However, the acquisition by NCR of crypto ATM firm LibertyX hasn’t attracted a ton of attention. In addition to ATMs, LibertyX’s software also runs at retail checkouts.
Let’s put the NCR acquisition in context. According to RBR, NCR has a 16% global market share of Point of Sale (PoS) software. In other words, if you buy any physical goods anywhere in the world, there’s a reasonable chance that the machine used at checkout is from NCR. Do you use a self-checkout unit at your local supermarket? NCR is a big player there too with a 31% market share of North American grocery stores. Now consider that machine might now support cryptocurrency.
But it doesn’t end there. NCR isn’t just a major PoS provider. It’s also the global market leader in ATMs with a 25% market share in 2020 according to RBR.
“Due to growing consumer demand, our customers require a complete digital currency solution, including the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrency, conduct cross-border remittance and accept digital currency payments across digital and physical channels,” said Tim Vanderham, CTO, NCR Corporation. “The LibertyX solution will accelerate our ability to rapidly deliver these capabilities to the market.”
NCR says it plans to offer LibertyX capabilities to banks, retail outlets and restaurants. The company also has digital wallets and mobile applications.
Deal details were not announced.
The ability to support cryptocurrencies at checkout is becoming a busy space. Just yesterday, Coinify, which enables merchants to support cryptocurrency payments, was bought by Voyager Digital for around $83 million. Earlier this year, PayPal enabled users to pay with cryptocurrencies. Visa and Mastercard have supported cards issued by cryptocurrency exchanges for some time.
