The North Dakota Senate passed a bill aimed at regulating crypto automated teller machines.
The crypto ATMs bill reintroduced a $2,000 daily transaction cap
Crypto ATMs have attracted notable attention from regulators, including the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority.
The North Dakota Senate passed the crypto ATM bill to create a licensing regime.
In this case, the bill initiates that virtual currency kiosk operators obtain money transmitter licenses and use blockchain methods to detect fraud, also limiting daily transactions to $2000. Initially, the bill stipulated a $1,000 daily cap.
As a way of overcoming scams, the bill also requires submission of quarterly reports as well as appointment of compliance officers. The bill which was introduced to the Senate on Jan. 15 passed with a 45-to-1 vote on March 18 and prioritises protecting residents from scams by introducing new guidelines for crypto ATMs and their operators.
This comes as a result of increased concerns over crypto ATM scams with stats revealing that at least $160 million illicit transactions have been facilitated since 2019.
Obligations to crypto ATM operators
The bill obligates operators to employ blockchain analytics to detect and report suspicious activities as fraud to authorities.
During a hearing on Jan. 22, the bill’s primary sponsor, house representative Steve Swiontek argued that crypto ATMs currently lack protection measures which might have allowed criminals into exploiting them for theft.
With rising fraud and regulatory scrutiny, the number of crypto ATMs are not growing despite BTC’s price growth in 2024. Data shows that the US has the most Bitcoin ATMs, representing 78% of the global market.
On March 13, Nebraska Governor Jim Pilen signed the Controllable Electronic Record Fraud Prevention Act into law. Similar federal law was proposed on Feb. 25 by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin which was motivated by a case of scam involving a $15000 deposit at a crypto ATM to avoid arrest.
The Financial Conduct Authority, the markets regulator in the United Kingdom, has increased scrutiny on the sector with crackdowns on unregistered operators.
Recently, a court in the UK sentenced a man to four years in prison for illegally operating crypto ATMs across the country. Olumide Osunkoya pleaded guilty to charges in October 2024.
Meanwhile, the FCA said a crackdown on illegal operations had seen the number of Bitcoin ATMs for the UK as listed on CoinATMRadar fall to zero.
