The Year in Bitcoin and Crypto ATMs 2025: Power Tools, Scams and Calls to Action

Crypto ATMs faced heightened scrutiny in 2025 as authorities and lawmakers tried to clamp down on a growing number of scams facilitated by these machines in the US

Some officials took matters into their own hands with power tools, while two attorneys general filed lawsuits against some of the industry’s largest companies. Meanwhile, agencies and other entities have issued consumer alerts targeting the elderly.

Crypto ATM operators say their machines provide a valuable service, allowing anyone to purchase digital assets Bitcoin with physical money. However, critics argue that these companies could do more to prevent older Americans from losing money to scams, even though it’s bad for business.

Last year, Americans reported $246 million in crypto ATM losses to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a 99% increase from the year before, according to a annual report. About 43% of these losses came from Americans over the age of 60.

The scam is quite simple: Older Americans withdraw cash from their bank accounts, convert it into crypto using operators’ machines, and then send it to people posing as the government, a corporation, or tech support workers.

Yet some interpretations are more creative than others, included a scam in Massachusetts where residents lost money to people demanding crypto payments for allegedly missing jury duty.

The irreversible nature of crypto transactions makes it challenging for victims to recover funds once scammers disappear, while the fine print of user agreements associated with these machines arose as another potential barrier to court.

For example, the Iowa Supreme Court has found in two cases this year, a crypto ATM operator was entitled to keep the funds linked to fraud because the company’s terms and services require users to say they own the digital wallet that receives funds – and not from third parties.

“Once that transaction is completed, when the user submits their money and their crypto is funded into the wallet of their choice, our involvement in the transaction ends,” Chris Ryan, chief legal officer of crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot, told me. Declutter in June.

Bitcoin Depot works with local law enforcement to track victims’ cryptocurrency, but by breaking into the company’s machines, Ryan says authorities are creating more victims, leaving them with damaged property and missing cash at least a dozen times a year.

Earlier that month, Jasper County sheriffs sent sparks around when they broke into one of the Bitcoin Depot kiosks at a rural gas station in Texas. In total, police collected $32,000 in cash, which Bitcoin Depot said was actually theirs.

‘Common sense guardrails’

In Iowa, Bitcoin Depot and competitor CoinFlip have faced pressure from Attorney General Brenna Bird. In February, she filed a lawsuit against the companies, claiming they take advantage of scam victims while charging “huge, hidden transaction fees,” according to an investigation. fact sheet.

The criticism of hidden costs came later echoed by Washington, DC Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb, who filed a lawsuit against crypto ATM operator Athena Bitcoin in September. In some cases, federal district residents paid 26% of the undisclosed fees, he alleged.

Schwalb’s lawsuit, which accused Athena of exploiting older adults and violating consumer protection laws, argued that warnings displayed on the company’s machines were irrelevant given the circumstances under which most victims approached them.

“Elderly scam victims standing terrified in gas stations, their pockets stuffed with uncomfortable amounts of cash, do not understand what it means to ‘generate’ a cryptocurrency wallet or have their own ‘personal Bitcoin wallet,'” the lawsuit’s complaint states.

An Athena spokesperson said this Declutter that the company strongly disagrees with the allegations and will defend itself in court. Bitcoin Depot and CoinFlip denied claims in Bird’s lawsuit, while highlighting procedures such as ID checks and refunded transaction fees. ABC News.

This year, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act. The legislation would impose strict transaction limits on crypto ATMs, while companies would be required to offer full refunds to fraud victims if they report losses within a certain period.

Durbin said the legislation includes “guardrails” that could protect older adults, but the bill has not made progress since it was introduced in the Republican-led Senate in February.

While efforts to regulate crypto ATMs at the federal level have not been productive this year, more than a dozen states have drafted or passed bills or regulations calling for limits on transactions, scam warnings and refund options, or new licensing requirements, according to AARP.

In June, the nonprofit focused on older Americans found that twenty states have taken action to address a growing number of scams facilitated by crypto ATMs, noting that they “continue to work with lawmakers in other states to implement similar protections to prevent fraud using crypto kiosks.”

At the time, city council members in Spokane, Washington, had just done that past a citywide ban on crypto ATMs, affecting around 50 kiosks in the area.

A few months later, in August, Illinois became the first state in the Midwest to pass bills aimed at reducing fraud related to crypto ATMs, requiring ATM operators to register with state regulators, cap transaction fees at 18%, and limit daily transactions to $2,500 for new users.

That same month, the Treasury Department launched its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an urgent warning about crypto ATMs, saying “the risk of illegal activity is increased” by operators who do not follow proper procedures under the Bank Secrecy Act.

As of mid-November, approximately 30,750 cryptocurrency ATMs had been installed in the US, representing 78% of kiosks worldwide. Coin ATM radar. Yet the global number of machines has fluctuated around 40,000 since 2022.

Local governments in the US have pursued restrictions on crypto kiosks, but some countries have taken a far-reaching approach to security measures. New Zealand for example, forbidden the machines across the country in June, as part of efforts to stifle criminal financing.