Seattle-based crypto ATM operator Coinme has agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty for violating daily transaction limits for crypto ATMs in California.
California caps crypto ATM transactions at $1,000 per customer per day under a law brought in last year. The company also failed to include required disclosures on customer receipts at its kiosks located in grocery and convenience stores across California, according to California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.
It marks the DFPI’s first enforcement action under the state’s Digital Financial Assets Law.
Under the consent order, Coinme has agreed to pay the penalty, including $51,700 in restitution to an elderly California resident who claimed to have been scammed.
The enforcement action should “send a strong message” to crypto kiosk operators that the state “means business when it requires digital asset companies to follow the rules that help prevent scammers from taking advantage of unsuspecting Californians,” said KC Mohseni, a DFPI commissioner.
Cointelegraph reached out to Coinme for further comment.
Crypto ATM scams rising
Scammers trick victims into purchasing crypto assets at ATMs and transferring funds directly to fraudsters’ wallets, said the DFPI.
The Digital Financial Assets Law was enacted in 2023 specifically to address these risks through kiosk operator regulations.
In April, the FBI reported that there were almost 11,000 complaints and over $246 million in losses associated with crypto ATM scams in 2024, a 31% increase from 2023. Two-thirds of scam victims were over 60 years old.
Crypto ATMs banned in Washington
Washington’s second-biggest city, Spokane, took things a step further by banning crypto ATMs last week.
Related: Crypto ATM network shrinks as US loses 1,200 machines in days
The measure was imposed to protect citizens from scams and money laundering, with local police claiming that funds deposited into crypto kiosks ended up “in places like China, North Korea and Russia.”
Aussie ATM sting
Meanwhile, Australian federal police said on Wednesday that they had contacted more than 90 citizens as part of a crackdown on criminal use of crypto ATMs, including pig butchering victims and suspected offenders.
In Texas, a county sheriff last week took a power-cutting tool to a local crypto kiosk after a family was reportedly scammed out of $25,000.
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