Stopping at the Circle K for gas? You might be tempted to grab a couple of hot dogs and a Coke. And, oh yeah, don’t forget the Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin Depot, a cryptocurrency network, recently entered a deal to place their ATMs in Circle K convenience stores, which has more than 7,000 locations nationwide. Customers can use the ATMs to instantly buy Bitcoin and more than 30 other types of cryptocurrency, a digital money system that exists outside government-issued currency. 

So why is a company known for coffee, breakfast sandwiches and cigarettes joining the world of Bitcoin, an indisputably complex, fringe financial system? 

"Circle K understands that cryptocurrency will be a growing part of the future economy and payments landscape,” CEO Brandon Mintz said in July as the company announced its partnership with Bitcoin Depot. 

Mintz believes by adding the Bitcoin ATMs to its stores, Circle K can attract new customers and also offer the increasingly popular — but not necessarily easy to access — financial option to underserved communities. 

Making the fairly new technology accessible to its often blue-collar-worker customers “will set (us) apart from other retailers,” Mintz said. 

But embracing what, granted, is only a small piece of the cryptocurrency world also set Circle K apart from another big U.S. business — the banking industry. 

For banks, cryptocurrency is especially complicated. First, while Circle K and other stores are providing a location for a cryptocurrency ATM machine, they are not necessarily involved in cryptocurrency transactions or other services. 

Banks, on the other hand, are highly regulated by both federal and state agencies and rely on a certain amount of predictability and guarantees in the services they offer. 

But the novel cryptocurrency system remains alluring to the traditional financial industry. For one thing, cryptocurrency has provided significant returns on investments for many people. And beckoning back to the Circle K philosophy, cryptocurrencies are a service that many people — including bank customers — want easy access to.

So far, however, North Carolina-based banks are taking a cautious approach to dipping their toes in the still-somewhat-mysterious world of cryptocurrencies. 

“We have no plans to offer cryptocurrency trading or bitcoin purchases to our clients at this time,” Frank Smith, a vice president for corporate communications for Raleigh-based First Citizens Bank, told the Greater Fayetteville Business Journal. The bank has more than a half-dozen branches in the Fayetteville area. 

“Like most U.S. banks, we're monitoring these types of services,” Smith said. 

Another large North Carolina bank, State Employees Credit Union, which also has a half dozen branches in Fayetteville, offered a similar response. 

“We don’t currently offer (cryptocurrency) business services,” said Sandra Jones, SECU’s senior vice president of member communications.

 But that doesn’t mean the banking industry isn’t closely following the trend. While some institutions — notably central-reserve banks — see cryptocurrency as a threat to the status quo and financial stability they say they provide, some observers say banks are missing out on a technology that is inevitable. 

Denis Astapchenia, head of financial services at Andersen, which develops IT solutions for financial institutions, fears banks are repeating a previous mistake -- failing to embrace new technologies and innovations, primarily engaging customers with how and where they want to do business, such as more digital-banking options.

“Obviously, banks should be going digital; that is not even a question,” Astapchenia said. “The question is how to do it correctly and more rapidly than competitors. Each case is unique, but in our opinion, there is one key detail — the client.” 

The client should be at the center of the bank’s digital transformation, and all changes should focus on their needs and wants, Astapchenia said.

“The client is not ready to wait,” he said. “The bank should provide the opportunity to purchase the largest possible number of products, including complex ones (for example, mortgages and cryptocurrency) through digital channels, eliminating the necessity to visit the branch.”

On the other hand, however, banks tend to be conservative institutions, according to the financial-technology publication Finextra. 

For banks, there is a big question, according to David Creer, technology and innovation lead at GFT, a financial-industry technology firm. 

“This is a big challenge they have to answer if they do not want to be left out of this unstoppable wave in this new financial era,” Creer said. 

But while some observers see cryptocurrency as an inevitable and transformative opportunity for the banking industry, others see it as a threat. Much of that analysis is taking place in European banks. The Bank of England and the U.K. Treasury, for example, are exploring creating a central bank devoted to digital currency, a system that would be used alongside traditional deposits. 

Among the concerns, according to the website Investment Executive, is that such a system would cut into the profits of banks and negatively affect their ability to shore up the overall economy when needed.

But even as U.S. banks remain skeptical of cryptocurrencies, they are attracted to blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. 

According to the First Citizens Bank website, “with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the need to find new ways of doing business, it's safe to say the future of blockchain is no longer emerging — it's here and well-established.” 

Super-encrypted blockchain technology not only can make financial transactions faster and more secure, it can do the same for private information such as medical records, observers say. 

Although it’s not offering cryptocurrency services, First Citizens is bullish on blockchain encryption: 

“The future of blockchain is much more than finance and cryptocurrencies. It provides an innovative approach to managing data and executing transactions where accuracy and reliability are critical,” according to the First Citizens Bank website. 

“There are many opportunities to use blockchain across many businesses and industries to transform products, services and processes — a trend that will only grow in 2021.” 

Although places such as Circle K are merely providing a location for a cryptocurrency ATM, it’s still a step ahead of where most banks are in the evolution of the new technology. 

For Creer, the analyst with GFT, it’s a matter of when, not if banks will embrace cryptocurrency. “As in many other areas of innovation, large financial institutions are not going to be left out of this change and will have to progressively integrate digital assets into their services,” Creer said. 

“The scope for growth is enormous in areas such as payments, transfers and decentralised finance,” he said. “Undoubtedly, the new financial era ... will transform the future of the global economy.” 

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency has staked out at least one popular U.S. destination — the local Circle K. 

So move over, hot dogs and to-go cups of coffee, and make room for a new neighbor — the Bitcoin machine. 

So far, it appears to be here to stay