More than 1200 crypto ATMs have shut down in the US following the introduction of an anti-fraud bill

What’s new? Over the past weekend, 1233 cryptocurrency ATMs stopped working in the United States. This came after Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, introduced a bill to combat crypto machine fraud on February 25. In his speech, he cited that one of his constituents had recently fallen victim to a similar scheme.

Coin ATM Radar data

What else is known? The senator said that the constituent was contacted by an unknown person and claimed that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. The scammer claimed that paying a $15 000 fine via cryptocurrency ATM would allow him to avoid jail time.

Durbin, who previously chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the bill is primarily aimed at protecting seniors from fraud. According to the FBI, Americans lost more than $5 billion to crypto fraud in 2023 alone, with many schemes specifically targeting seniors.

If passed, the bill would require cryptocurrency ATM operators to warn users of the risks of losing funds when sending them to unknown addresses and to take reasonable steps to prevent fraud on their devices.

He explained that the document offers “special protection” for two weeks to those using a cryptocurrency ATM for the first time. Operators will be required to limit deposits from a single customer to $2000 per day or $10 000 in total and verbally confirm any deposit over $500 from new customers.

Operators would also be required to provide full refunds to fraud victims under certain circumstances. The document would also give law enforcement tools to track illegal transactions.

At the moment, Congress is controlled by Republicans, so it is unclear whether any Democrat bill will receive the necessary support to be sent for signing by Donald Trump, who made support for cryptocurrencies one of the central elements of his campaign program. After the inauguration, he continued to issue decrees aimed at stimulating the growth of the crypto industry.

Durbin’s proposal came in the same month that 860 new crypto ATMs were installed in the US. As of March 3, there are 29 731 crypto ATMs in the US, or 79.9% of the total worldwide. Canada and Australia are next with 3085 (8,3%) and 1467 (3,9%) respectively.