That earlier law required operators to post warnings that crypto is not legal tender and transactions are irreversible, imposed a $2,000 daily limit on new customers who had held accounts for less than 72 hours, and allowed refunds if fraud victims contacted the company and law enforcement within 14 days. Department of Commerce officials testified that scammers routinely bypass these protections by coaching victims to use existing accounts or machines in neighboring states such as Wisconsin. The department recorded 70 complaints in the past year totaling $540,000 in losses; however, it should be noted that the vast majority of these incidents tend to go unreported.
Woodbury Police Det. Lynn Lawrence described one victim on fixed income who sent roughly half her monthly earnings to scammers over six months through repeated bitcoin ATM transactions. “She was afraid she was going to have to live out of her car because she had no money left,” Lawrence said. Sam Smith, the Commerce Department’s government relations director, told lawmakers, “Previous efforts to increase consumer protections for crypto kiosks have failed.”
Larry Lipka of CoinFlip, one of the larger operators, acknowledged the problem but opposed the outright ban. “The scammers are vigilant. They’re terrible and they’re stealing from Americans,” he said, adding, “It is inappropriate to ban a legal product because fraud is happening. Not our fault.” Roughly 350 licensed crypto kiosks are said to operate in the state under eight to ten companies.
Scammers using crypto ATMs to target the elderly is an issue seen all over the country
The same pattern appears nationwide. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell sued crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot earlier this month, alleging the operator knowingly facilitated scams that caused more than $10 million in losses for state residents. Internal company data showed 13 to 16 percent of transactions were scam-related in early 2023, rising to over 50 percent of money volume through Massachusetts machines from August 2023 to January 2025. A 2021 internal review had flagged that 90 percent of customers interacting with one due-diligence team were likely scam victims. The company responded that it disagrees with the allegations, has cooperated with law enforcement, and now requires identity verification on every transaction.
Over in Maine, a nearly $2 million settlement with Bitcoin Depot was reached, which also required the firm to remove all its kiosks from the state. Kansas regulators also opened an inquiry into crypto ATMs after a farm couple in Centerville lost $20,000 when a caller posing as Apple support instructed the wife to withdraw cash and deposit it into a machine in Johnson County. And West Virginia’s House Finance Committee advanced House Bill 5353 on Thursday to license operators, set transaction limits, and mandate fraud protocols after residents reported $7.6 million in losses the prior year. AARP West Virginia backed the bill, noting that people 60 and older accounted for more than 85 percent of reported national losses in 2024.
FBI figures show nearly 11,000 crypto ATM scam complaints in 2024 totaling $247 million, climbing to $333 million in 2025 without even including December. But again, the actual total is likely far higher because most victims never report the crime.
Pig Butchering Scams are Big Business
Asian criminal syndicates have industrialized so-called “pig butchering” scams, relying on forced labor in compounds across Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Trafficked workers face coercion and follow scripts to build romantic or friendly relationships on dating apps, then steer targets toward fake crypto trading platforms that display phony profits. Once victims send funds, the scammers disappear. The term “pig butchering” refers to fattening the victim emotionally before extracting everything. Elderly targets are frequently pushed towards crypto ATMs because the machines require only cash and a QR code, avoiding the need for online wallets.
One such operation lies behind a $13 billion bitcoin dispute between the United States and China. U.S. authorities seized 127,272 bitcoin, now worth about $13 billion, from Cambodian conglomerate chairman Chen Zhi as part of the largest asset forfeiture in Justice Department history. Prosecutors linked the funds to pig butchering proceeds laundered through the LuBian mining pool. Chinese officials accuse the United States of orchestrating a 2020 hack of that pool.
According to a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, illicit activity more generally rose to record levels of around $154 billion in 2025. This was a 162% increase from the revised 2024 total of $57.2 billion and the highest figure since tracking began in 2020. Sanctioned nation states, such as Iran and Venezuela, are said to have driven much of the surge, especially via dollar-pegged stablecoins.
Crypto ATMs Also Targeted at Federal Level Via CLARITY Act
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (also known as the CLARITY Act) also targets crypto ATMs at the federal level. Although the legislation passed the House last year, Senate committees postponed markups in January while negotiators finalized language in the bill. A dispute over stablecoin interest remains a major point of friction between traditional banks and the crypto industry.
A Senate Banking Committee draft bill (PDF) treats kiosk operators as money transmitters subject to Bank Secrecy Act obligations, and operators must register kiosk locations with the Treasury Department on a quarterly basis. Additional requirements include mandatory disclosures and receipts, appointment of a compliance officer, identity confirmation for new customers, short holding periods before large transfers, transaction limits, refund procedures for suspected fraud, and a customer service helpline.
Privacy Advocates Push Back
Financial privacy advocates contend that restrictions on crypto ATMs are a clampdown on one of the few ways it is still possible to trade between dollars and crypto that isn’t yet caught up in the surveillance state. In a recent blog post, the Cato Institute’s Nick Anthony argued, “It is heartbreaking that people are being tricked by scammers into sending money through cryptocurrency ATMs . . . However, the common denominator here is that scammers are the problem. That is who the government should be going after.”
At the same time, truly decentralized peer-to-peer trading persists. Anyone holding cash and a smartphone can act as an informal exchange, swapping dollars for bitcoin or any other crypto asset directly on the street without a centralized database of trades for the government to tap. Of course, only the hardcore cypherpunks, driven more by philosophy, than practicality even consider going the extra mile to retain privacy in this regard, and the vast majority of crypto activity is increasingly centralized around fintech companies and more easily-controlled stablecoins, despite the very serious, longstanding security issues with this structure.
