More Than 1,200 Crypto ATMs Disappear in U.S. Amid New Fraud Prevention Push
At the start of March, over 1,200 cryptocurrency ATMs in the United States unexpectedly went offline, raising questions about the sudden drop.
The decline followed the introduction of a new bill aimed at curbing fraud in the crypto ATM sector.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin proposed the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act on Feb. 25, highlighting scams that exploit these machines. Ironically, the shutdown occurred just after the U.S. added 860 new ATMs in February.
Despite this growth, the first days of March saw a global reduction of 1,100 crypto ATMs, with the U.S. responsible for 1,233 removals. Meanwhile, installations in Europe, Canada, Australia, and other regions slightly offset the decline.
READ MORE: David Sacks Sells All Crypto Before Trump’s Reserve Announcement
Even with the losses, the U.S. remains the dominant player, hosting 29,731 machines—nearly 80% of the global total. Canada follows with 3,085, and Australia has 1,467. Worldwide, 37,226 crypto ATMs are still operational, though industry expansion has slowed since mid-2022 due to increased regulations.
Durbin’s bill seeks to address fraud by mandating warning messages on ATMs, improving scam prevention, and giving authorities better tools to track illicit transactions.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
