Hey guys, have you heard anything about RockItCoin ATMs potentially scamming people? Are they legit, or is it a scam?
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Yeah, it’s a pretty shady business practice. They tend not to update the Bitcoin price when it drops, but suddenly adjust it when the price goes up.
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How? Oh, when you say “scam,” you’re referring to them asking for excessively high prices for their Bitcoin? Well, if you’re a hodler or if your target price is $1 million, then you are too! Just like you aren’t forcing anyone to pay your million-dollar limit order, nobody is forcing ATM customers to click “pay.”
This idea that as soon as you become a business owner, you have to cater to every individual’s sense of what’s a fair price is rather simplistic. Are you complaining about limit orders on exchanges set well above market price? Should everyone be compelled to sell at whatever Coinbase customers are paying or be labeled as scammers? Why is the price on Coinbase considered fairer than that on the ATM, and fair for whom?
I challenge you to try installing an ATM near you and offering a lower price. In many states, it’s not very difficult. In others, it costs tens to hundreds of thousands to get properly licensed. Then there are hardware costs, space rental, various legal expenses, and unless you’re a security and technical expert, you’ll need support for that too. And if you can manage accounting and taxes yourself, that’s great, but it’s no small task.
The point is, the overhead for a single ATM is so substantial that you’d need a national fleet to achieve economies of scale and offer rates within single-digit markups compared to what customers get on live online exchange platforms, where thousands of buyers and sellers are trading every minute. In most ATM locations, you’d be lucky to get a handful of customers per day.
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I just used a RockItCoin ATM. Bitcoin is priced at $36,300 on KuCoin and Binance while I was at the ATM.
RockItCoin is selling BTC for $43,800 at their machine, marking it up by $7,500.
It seems like they’re overcharging people using their ATMs.
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The traditional capitalist view of business asserts that companies exist solely to maximize returns for shareholders. This often diverges from efforts to promote societal benefits like clean air and water, or ensuring financial independence for all citizens.