Walmart, the world's largest retailer by sales, has started a program that allows consumers to buy bitcoin via Coinstar ATMs at 200 of its locations.

“Coinstar, in partnership with Coinme, has launched a pilot that allows its customers to use cash to purchase bitcoin. There are 200 Coinstar kiosks located inside Walmart stores across the United States that are part of this pilot,” Walmart communications director Molly Blakeman told CoinDesk on Friday.

Walmart customers may now buy bitcoin through Coinstar ATMs, as confirmed by a CoinDesk editor who purchased a tiny quantity of bitcoin at a Pennsylvania Walmart earlier this month.

Previously, Coinstar kiosks were mostly used to exchange coins for paper banknotes or gift cards. Coinme, a cryptocurrency payment firm that specializes in bitcoin ATMs (also known as BTMs), has activated the new service.

After a false news release last month stated that bitcoin will be accepted as payment in Walmart shops, a Walmart source told CoinDesk that the firm purposefully avoided issuing a press release.

The cryptocurrency ATM sector is rapidly growing, thanks in part to the Covid-19 epidemic. Coinstar began offering bitcoin-buying services with Coinme in 2019, with the goal of having 3,500 Coinme BTMs in the US by 2020 and 300 additional bitcoin-selling machines in Florida by April 2021.

The 200 bitcoin-enabled ATMs at Walmart are part of a trial initiative that may be expanded throughout the retailer's 4,700 locations.