In brief
- Albuquerque city council passed an ordinance on Wednesday banning crypto kiosks and cashier-facilitated virtual currency transactions.
- Operators and the businesses hosting the machines face a 45-day removal deadline.
- Indiana, Tennessee and Minnesota have already banned the machines statewide, and the largest U.S. operator went bankrupt in May.
Albuquerque has banned cryptocurrency ATMs within city limits, with an ordinance passed by the city council on Wednesday that also covers cashier-facilitated virtual currency transactions.
The city will now notify known operators and the retailers hosting their machines, who have 45 days to take them out.
District 1 Councilor Stephanie Telles, who co-sponsored the measure with District 7 Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn, said 90% of crypto ATM transactions in Albuquerque are tied to fraud. “No one who legitimately exchanges or transmits virtual currency uses these kiosks, because the high fees make them a ripoff,” Telles said in a press release. She argued that they are primarily used by “Scammers, organized crime, and human traffickers” because the transactions are instant, anonymous, and irreversible.
“We cannot wait for federal regulators to solve this crisis while our residents are actively being targeted and harmed in our own neighborhoods,” Fiebelkorn added.
Residents remain free to own, mine and transfer crypto through online exchanges and personal wallets, the council said.
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The city ban follows a run of statewide prohibitions. Indiana went first in March, Tennessee followed in July, and Minnesota's ban, floated in the spring, took effect in August. Delaware has advanced a bill, New Jersey is considering one, and Texas lawmakers are weighing a ban after kiosk scams cost residents $57 million.
Bitcoin Depot, once the largest operator in North America, filed for Chapter 11 in May and pulled roughly 9,700 kiosks offline, with chief executive Alex Holmes citing transaction limits and “in some jurisdictions, outright restrictions or bans.”
Telles's 90% figure is high, but not an outlier. Washington, D.C.'s attorney general sued Athena Bitcoin last year after finding that 93% of deposits into its seven kiosks in the city over five months were the product of fraud, with a median victim age of 71. Athena said it strongly disagreed. The FBI logged nearly 11,000 kiosk fraud complaints in 2024, worth more than $246 million.