Case Study · Canada

The Crypto ATM Operator Who Still Answers His Own Phone

In 2017, Ben Glickman moved to Nelson, British Columbia, with no real plan beyond wanting to be closer to his two young children. What started as a single bitcoin ATM in a small-town convenience store — installed only after he'd talked to every retail business in Nelson — has grown into Bitcoin Central, a 72-machine network spanning four provinces and one of the few crypto ATM operators built specifically around Canada's smaller and more remote communities, running on GENERAL BYTES hardware and software.

72 Crypto ATMs across Canada

4 Provinces covered

10th Largest operator in Canada

2% National market share

The Move That Started It

Bitcoin Central's story doesn't start with a business plan. In 2016, Ben Glickman's marriage ended, and his two children — both under five at the time — moved with their mother to Kaslo, a small village in the interior of British Columbia. Ben moved to nearby Nelson, the closest town to Kaslo, about an hour away and roughly eight hours from Vancouver, where he'd been living and working. Rather than stay that far from his kids, he sold his business in Vancouver and moved to Nelson with no clear next step beyond wanting to be close to them. The divorce left him in debt, and starting a new business became less a career choice than a necessity — a way to get out of debt, support his children, and rebuild.

Vancouver has long been a center of Canadian crypto activity — the world's first bitcoin ATM was installed at a Vancouver coffee shop in 2013 — but when Ben began planning his own business from Nelson in 2017, most of the country's machines were still concentrated in major cities. Along the roughly 1,000 km stretch between Vancouver and Calgary, only two or three bitcoin ATMs existed at all. That gap looked like an opportunity.

Finding the First Machine, and the First Store

Ben ordered his first ATM in 2017 and paid for it by wire transfer — only to get one digit wrong in GENERAL BYTES' bank account number. The payment landed in the bank's general account, and it took over a month to track down. Once the machine arrived, he taught himself how to set it up by watching bootleg YouTube tutorials in his studio apartment. Between getting the machine running, incorporating a company, opening a banking relationship, and lining up a liquidity provider, the whole process took about six months.

Finding somewhere to put it took its own kind of persistence. In 2018, cryptocurrency was still unfamiliar to most people in smaller Canadian communities, and local businesses weren't eager to host an ATM. Ben talked to every retail business in Nelson before a small, family-owned corner store agreed to give it a try. Once it was installed, people in the community started seeking it out — before Ben had even launched a proper website, beyond a homemade Wix page.

The company wasn't originally called Bitcoin Central, either. Ben had built and branded the business as "BankBit" — only to find out after launch that he couldn't trademark, or even legally use, a name containing the word "bank." Everything had to be rebranded, and Bitcoin Central was born.

Getting the doors open didn't mean the hard part was over. Once the business was finally operational, Ben had $10,000 left to his name — everything he had — and put all of it toward the float needed to run his first ATM, sending the funds to Quadriga, then Canada's largest bitcoin exchange. Quadriga promptly went bankrupt, and the money disappeared with it. Bitcoin Central was out of business again for several months, until Ben borrowed $10,000 from a friend to get it running a second time. Having lost everything before making a single dollar, he seriously considered quitting. He's glad he didn't.

Built for the Distances Canada Actually Has

Bitcoin Central operates in a way that's unusual for the industry: it's headquartered in a rural community, not a major city, and much of its footprint follows the same logic. Western Canada is large enough that running a network here is a genuinely different problem than doing it in a compact market. Bitcoin Central has ATMs as far out as Prince George, BC — roughly the same distance from Nelson as Prague is from Paris, and that's still less than halfway across British Columbia alone. Servicing a machine that far out can mean an 11-hour drive or a flight, and Canadian winters don't make either option easy.

That distance is also where the opportunity lives. Fewer operators are willing to travel that far to install and maintain machines in smaller communities, which has let Bitcoin Central build a presence — and a level of familiarity with customers and hosts — that's harder to find in more contested urban markets.

Keys = Coins: Fraud Prevention as a Daily Practice

Fraud is a persistent problem across the financial sector, and bitcoin ATMs are no exception. Every Bitcoin Central machine carries physical warning signage and pamphlets developed in cooperation with the local RCMP, and customers have to click through multiple waivers before completing a transaction. The company also uses third-party screening software to flag transactions to high-risk wallets.

RCMP-developed signage Physical warnings and pamphlets at every machine, made with local police input.

Multi-step waivers Customers click through several waivers before any transaction completes.

High-risk wallet screening Third-party software screens wallets to block transactions flagged as high-risk.

This year, Bitcoin Central is revamping its transaction monitoring tools, with a particular focus on preventing elder fraud. Ben is candid that bitcoin ATMs are an easy target to point to when fraud comes up in Canada, even though FINTRAC — the regulator responsible for bitcoin ATMs in the country — has stated publicly that most transactions through these machines are likely legitimate, and that most financial fraud and money laundering in Canada still runs through the traditional banking system. His view is that a more holistic approach — one that looks at how fraudsters reach victims through social media and telecom networks in the first place — matters more than treating ATMs in isolation. Bitcoin Central measures its own success not only by ATM count or transaction volume, but by the quality of the transactions it processes and the amount of fraud it prevents.

Choosing a Technology Partner

When Ben was choosing hardware and software providers, price and footprint mattered — GENERAL BYTES machines are affordably priced and take up less space in a host location than competing models. But what kept the partnership going, he says, is support.

Affordable, compact hardware A smaller footprint than competing machines, and a price that made sense for a small operator starting out.

Support that's actually there Ben compares it to buying a razor: the machine doesn't matter if the "blades" — support — aren't there when you need them.

A team that shows up Ben has visited GENERAL BYTES' Prague office several times, including GB Days last year.

"The staff at General Bytes genuinely cares about their mission, the industry they work in, and the operators they support."

It's evident, Ben says, that GENERAL BYTES is fulfilling a mission rather than just selling machines and a service — the team is consistently available to answer questions, help with problems, and talk through new ideas.

From GB Days in Prague, an event Ben has attended in person

What Actually Decides Long-Term Success

Asked what separates a crypto ATM network that lasts from one that doesn't, Ben doesn't point to a single factor. Locations matter, SEO and web visibility matter, but customer service is what he comes back to first — customers are paying a premium to buy crypto with cash, and he believes they deserve service to match.

He also points to flexibility, since the crypto landscape in Canada and internationally keeps shifting, and to building redundancy into every part of the operation — providers of nearly every service in this industry can disappear suddenly, so it pays to be ready before that happens.

"The best time to build an ark is when it's not raining."

The last piece, in Ben's view, is staying conservative. The temptation in this industry is to chase quick profits, but he believes the operators who last are the ones who don't expand too fast or take unnecessary chances — slow, steady growth on solid infrastructure and liquidity beats rapid growth on a shaky foundation.

What's Next for Bitcoin Central

An international opportunity — details to come Ben is intentionally light on specifics for now, beyond confirming that Bitcoin Central is working on expanding beyond Canada. Stay tuned.

Advice for Future Operators

"This is not a business for the faint of heart."

Asked what he'd tell someone starting a crypto ATM business in Canada today, Ben came back to four points:

1 Grow on cash flow, not leverage Take a long view and don't be discouraged by the ups and downs. Ben doesn't recommend outside investors, loans, or leverage — scale as your cash flow allows.	2 Do the groundwork before buying ATMs A banking relationship and a liquidity provider come first. Buying machines should be one of your last steps, not your first.
3 Get compliance right from day one Understand your country's AML/KYC requirements and hold the proper licenses before launching. Skipping this can carry serious legal and financial consequences.	4 Start small and prove the model Order one or two machines, get the system working end to end, then expand gradually. Buying used? Check serial numbers with GENERAL BYTES to confirm they're paid off and transferable.

Conclusion

Bitcoin Central didn't start as a growth story — it started as a way for one father to rebuild his life closer to his kids. Eight years, a lost float, and one rebrand later, it's a 72-machine network built on a bet that most of the industry has overlooked: that there's real, lasting demand for crypto ATMs outside the cities everyone else is already competing over, and that the operators who last are the ones who answer the phone themselves.