<p>When you exchange Bitcoins for dollars at an ATM, it's the same as when you sell them any other way: the coins become the property of the ATM owner, who can do with them what they like.  They might:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Sell them on an exchange (to know which one, you'd have to ask them, but there's really no reason they should tell you).</p></li>
<li><p>Keep them to sell to future ATM users who want to buy coins</p></li>
<li><p>Hold them for speculation</p></li>
<li><p>Use them to pay employees, or buy other goods and services</p></li>
<li><p>Draw pentagrams on the floor, light candles and chant the digits of the private key</p></li>
</ul>

<p>There's no way for you to know what they do with the coins unless they tell you, and no reason why you should really care.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-22T15:43:55.920Z
2014-02-22T15:43:55.920Z
Nate Eldredge
<p>So when I sell my bitcoin via the ATM for cash(USD). Who gets the bitcoin? THe company that owns the ATM? And is that bitcoin still part of the system?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-22T14:24:44.880Z
Yes on both counts. How else could it possibly work?
Nate Eldredge
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-22T14:37:12.337Z
So Robocoin has an account with the bitcoin exchange that enables it to buy/sell bitcoins at the current market rate? Which bitcoin exchange handles these transactions?
Suman
<sell-bitcoins><bitcoin-atm>
Bitcoins for Cash at Bitcoin ATMs
Suman
# Bitcoins for Cash at Bitcoin ATMs

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-02-22)

So when I sell my bitcoin via the ATM for cash(USD). Who gets the bitcoin? THe company that owns the ATM? And is that bitcoin still part of the system?

**Tags:** sell-bitcoins, bitcoin-atm

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Yes on both counts. How else could it possibly work?  
> **username_0**: So Robocoin has an account with the bitcoin exchange that enables it to buy/sell bitcoins at the current market rate? Which bitcoin exchange handles these transactions?  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-02-22. Score: 2

When you exchange Bitcoins for dollars at an ATM, it's the same as when you sell them any other way: the coins become the property of the ATM owner, who can do with them what they like. They might:

* Sell them on an exchange (to know which one, you'd have to ask them, but there's really no reason they should tell you).
* Keep them to sell to future ATM users who want to buy coins
* Hold them for speculation
* Use them to pay employees, or buy other goods and services
* Draw pentagrams on the floor, light candles and chant the digits of the private key

There's no way for you to know what they do with the coins unless they tell you, and no reason why you should really care.


---

