Bitcoin ATMs 2025: Scams & Safe Use Guide

Cryptocurrency ATMs faced increased scrutiny in 2025, as authorities and lawmakers attempted to confront a growing number of scams facilitated by these machines in the United States.

Some officials took matters into their own hands with power tools, while two attorneys general filed lawsuits against several of the largest companies in the sector. Meanwhile, agencies and other entities issued consumer alerts aimed at seniors.

Cryptocurrency ATM operators claim their machines provide a valuable service, allowing anyone to purchase digital assets like Bitcoin with physical cash. However, critics argue that these companies could do more to prevent older Americans from losing funds to scams, even if that is bad for business.

Last year, Americans reported $246 million in cryptocurrency ATM losses to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a 99% increase compared to the previous year, according to an annual report. About 43% of those losses came from Americans over 60.

The scam is pretty simple: Older Americans are withdrawing cash from their bank accounts, converting it into cryptocurrency using the operators’ machines, and then sending it to people posing as the government, a company, or tech support workers.

Still, some versions are more creative than others, such as a scam in Massachusetts where residents lost money to people who demanded payments in cryptocurrency for supposedly skipping jury duty.

The irreversible nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes it difficult for victims to recover funds once scammers are gone, while the fine print of user agreements associated with these machines has emerged as another potential barrier in court.

The Iowa Supreme Court, for example, determined in two cases this year that a cryptocurrency ATM operator had the right to keep the cash associated with the fraud, because the company’s terms and services require users to say they own the digital wallet that receives the funds, not third parties.

“Once that transaction is complete, when the user inserts their cash and their cryptocurrency is funded in the wallet of their choice, that’s where our involvement in the transaction ends,” Chris Ryan, chief legal officer at cryptocurrency ATM operator Bitcoin Depot, told Decrypt in June.

Bitcoin Depot works with local law enforcement to track victims’ cryptocurrencies, but by breaking into the company’s machines, Ryan claimed that 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 deputies created sparks when they cut down one of Bitcoin Depot’s kiosks at a rural gas station in Texas. In total, law enforcement recovered $32,000 in cash, which Bitcoin Depot said actually belonged to them.

‘Common sense protection measures’

In Iowa, Bitcoin Depot and its competitor CoinFlip have faced pressure from Attorney General Brenna Bird. In February, it filed a lawsuit against the companies, alleging that they profit from scam victims while charging “massive, hidden transaction fees,” according to a fact sheet.

However, criticism over hidden fees was later supported by Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb, who filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency ATM operator Athena Bitcoin in September. In some cases, residents of the federal district were paying undisclosed rates of 26%, it was alleged.

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

“Victims of major scams who are terrified at gas stations, their pockets stuffed with uncomfortable amounts of cash, do not understand what it means to ‘build’ a cryptocurrency wallet or have their own ‘personal Bitcoin wallet,'” the lawsuit complaint stated.

An Athena spokesperson told Decrypt that the company strongly disagrees with the accusations and will defend itself in court. Bitcoin Depot and CoinFlip denied the claims in Bird’s lawsuit, while highlighting procedures such as identification verifications and transaction fee refunds to ABC News.

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

Durbin said the legislation presents “common-sense safeguards” that could protect seniors, but the bill has not progressed since it was introduced in the Republican-led Senate in February.

Although efforts to regulate cryptocurrency ATMs at the federal level have been unproductive this year, more than a dozen states have drafted or passed bills or regulations requiring limits on transactions, warnings about scams and refund options, or new licensing requirements, according to AARP.

In June, the nonprofit dedicated to older Americans found that 20 states had moved to address a growing number of scams facilitated by cryptocurrency ATMs, noting that it is “continuing to work with lawmakers in other states to adopt similar protections to prevent fraud using cryptocurrency kiosks.”

At the time, city council members in Spokane, Washington, had just passed a citywide ban on cryptocurrency ATMs, affecting around 50 kiosks located in the local area.

A couple of months later in August, Illinois became the first Midwestern state to pass bills aimed at curbing cryptocurrency ATM-related fraud, requiring ATM operators to register with state regulators, cap transaction fees at 18%, and cap daily transactions at $2,500 for new users.

That same month, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an urgent warning about cryptocurrency ATMs, stating that “the risk of illicit activity is exacerbated” by operators who fail to maintain adequate procedures under the Bank Secrecy Act.

As of mid-November, around 30,750 cryptocurrency ATMs had been installed in the United States, representing 78% of kiosks worldwide, according to Coin ATM Radar. Still, the global machine count has remained around 40,000 since 2022.

Local governments in the United States have sought restrictions on cryptocurrency kiosks, but some countries have taken a comprehensive approach to safeguards. New Zealand, for example, banned the machines nationwide in June, as part of efforts to choke off criminal financing.