Two bitcoin ATMs in the Dutch city of Amsterdam have been stolen, according to reports.
The news first broke over the weekend, as Coin ATM Radar picked up on the lack of activity from both machines and published the news on Twitter.
Two bitcoin ATMs have been stolen from @MrBitc0in in #Amsterdam @generalbytes @BitAccess So against Bitcoin spirit pic.twitter.com/gtHyX0Mnck
— Coin ATM Radar (@CoinATMRadar) February 14, 2015
Sign of bitcoin’s ‘maturity’
Martijn Wismeijer from the Dutch bitcoin ATM collective MrBitco.in, who owned a General Bytes BATMTwo machine, told CoinDesk that he was “devastated at first,” but added that “this being Amsterdam we expected stolen units months ago”.
He continued:
“In a way we see this as the bitcoin market maturing. If thieves start pointing their crowbars at the bitcoin ATMs, we know bitcoin has gone mainstream.”
The General Bytes machine had been placed at Hofje van Wijs, a bar in Amsterdam’s red light district, which formerly housed the city’s Bitcoin Embassy. It went missing at around 07:00 on 26th January, according to Wismeijer’s data
The exact amount of stolen funds is unknown. Wismeijer said that “it is hard enough to trade in bitcoin for a profit,” so “a loss like this is not easy to overcome for an independent trader”.
Although his machine was worth €2,300 ($2,600), Wismeijer says that the loss of a location and trader was “worth far more”.
The other machine, a two-way BitAccess ATM operated by EasyBit, is thought to be worth about €8,800 ($10,000). The exact date of its disappearance is not currently clear, but is believed to have been some time last month.
The police investigation is ongoing.