Stamford entrepreneur begins rolling out Bitcoin purchase kiosks

ONEnthony Truglia, founder of Bitcoin-Abroad LLC, is pursuing his dream by installing digital kiosks across Stamford that will allow customers to buy the cryptocurrency Bitcoin quickly and easily.

“I think the main reason I got into this is because I feel like there are a lot of people who don’t have access to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that could benefit them,” Truglia said.

Bitcoin-Abroad is seeking high-traffic areas to install kiosks, which will allow users to buy cryptocurrency from his company for a nominal fee and transfer it directly to a “hot wallet” that the user already owns. The appeal for many unbanked people is that while the value of Bitcoin has the potential to go down, it also has the potential to increase in value at rates much higher than any bank account or certificate of deposit. If two people both share the key or password that accesses the wallet, they can also treat it as a joint checking account and avoid the transfer fees associated with services such as Western Union if they share money abroad.

At the time of writing, Truglia has installed two Bitcoin-Abroad locations in Stamford: one at Dunkin Donuts at 310 Elm St., and the other at Shippan Candies at 320 Shippan Ave. He is already in negotiations with several locations and plans to order four more kiosks from his Canadian manufacturer in the near future.

“I like to pick areas that have very high foot traffic,” Truglia said of his selection criteria. “Typically, near freeways and certain businesses, such as this Dunkin Donuts, that people come through frequently and in large numbers.”

While his kiosks do not function as ATMs since they cannot handle cash, Truglia applies similar thinking to where the demand for the services will be greatest. He’s less interested in establishments with drive-throughs, which can reduce foot traffic, while anywhere that can be part of someone’s daily routine is more attractive.

“If you had any intention of buying some Bitcoin that morning or that day, or you saw on your phone that it was going down in price while you were waiting in line, it’s right there,” Truglia said of the Elm Street location. “I hope that people in this particular place who might be having their coffee in the morning notice the machine over there, and there’s a novelty to it, but also that convenience.”

In addition to the machines themselves drawing crypto-savvy customers, Truglia predicted they will provide an attractive passive income stream. While he did not share the specific terms of his deals, he pointed to competitor CoinFlip, which raised close to $100 million last year with 2,500 machines offering a similar set of services.

“They can average between $1,000 and $3,000 a month,” he said of the returns he hopes to see from each machine, a portion of which will go to the owners of the businesses that host the machines.

Truglia is convinced that the current trends in the crypto market are only temporary, and that there is actually a growing demand for convenient access to cryptocurrency among the unbanked.

As a Stamford native, Truglia is excited to launch a new business venture in his hometown. He builds on his previous experience working in real estate and as a chief financial officer in Utah, as well as a deep interest in cryptocurrency that emerged from research conducted in the early days of the pandemic shutdowns.

Although he is aware of the challenges ahead, he is confident that Bitcoin-Abroad will outperform the short-lived business he started right out of college. His original business imported ‘kopi luwak’, a coffee from the South Pacific, considered by many to be among the best in the world. Since the production process involves an animal known as the Asian palm civet not only selecting the best, ripest coffee beans, but also eating and digesting them, market adoption proved to be an “uphill battle”.

Still, Truglia found the process of researching the product, registering the business and successfully navigating the FDA approval process to be valuable. His entrepreneurial spirit has turned this failure into an asset.

“It was a great learning experience,” he said. “I learned that maybe I needed to work for someone else, try different things and save while gaining experience. I knew that one day I would get another idea or see an opportunity and would jump on it. Bitcoin-Abroad is one of these.”