Bitcoin ATM and Crypto ATM – A View from Bitcoin 2025

Will your next crypto transaction be at a crypto ATM or at Self-Order?

Any doubts about cryptocurrency’s future as both a payment method and a financial asset were laid to rest at last week’s record-setting Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas.

What’s less certain is crypto ATMs’ role in this promising crypto future.

Crypto ATMs, which allow users to buy crypto with fiat currency, have fallen victim to their own success in making crypto available to consumers since bitcoin emerged in 2009. In the early years, crypto ATMs played an important role making crypto available to a less bitcoin savvy public and expanded rapidly across the retail landscape. The number of crypto ATM installations jumped from six in 2013 to 39,539 in 2022, according to coinatmradar.com, a website that tracks crypto ATMs.

Consumers have since become more comfortable doing transactions on crypto exchanges via laptops, I-pads and phones, which are less expensive and more convenient than crypto ATMs. On July 1, 2023, the number of crypto ATMs took a hit of 4,080 before recovering in April of 2024 and has since hovered under the 39,000 mark.

[Editors Note: interesting to see Steak and Shake accepting bitcoin — see video]

“That initial phase is over,” Mark Mason, international publisher of Bitcoin Magazine, owned by BTC Inc., which produced Bitcoin 2025, told KioskIndustry.org on the Venetian Expo trade show floor. “There are much easier ways for people to access bitcoin.” Mason observed that mainstream adoption of crypto has progressed significantly in recent years and the industry is currently in its corporate adoption phase.

“If it’s a seasoned investor, they’re probably not going to do it (use an ATM) because it’s expensive,” said Lorenzo Abbatiello, owner of Miami, Florida based Lorenzo Tax, an expo exhibitor offering tax planning services for crypto businesses.

A new era for crypto ATMs

Ryan Rudden, owner of Mount Airy, Maryland-based Hodl Bitcoin ATMs, which operates 65 crypto ATMs in Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C., agreed that crypto ATMs’ fast growth phase has subsided. His machines’ average monthly location sales peaked at around $30,000 in 2021 and have since slipped to around $10,000.

Rudden no longer retains as many repeat customers since they are aware they can more readily and more economically use an exchange on their desktop, laptop or mobile phone. Another reason is that during COVID, people were getting payments from the government and were looking for ways to spend their money. Still another reason crypto ATM installations have slowed is crypto ATM market saturation.

“They’re in virtually every gas station,” Rudden said. “The barriers to entry are getting higher and higher.”

Rudden, formerly a CPA, launched his bitcoin ATM business in 2018, serving mostly fuel stations on a revenue share basis. He attended Bitcoin 2025 to network with other crypto ATM operators about his newly introduced bitcoin ATM software business, BTMIQ.

Crypto ATMs are currently constrained by two key factors, according to Zack Shapiro, head of policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute:
High pricing. U.S. crypto ATM operators typically mark up the exchange rate by 5% to 23%, sometimes more, and may tack on flat fees on top. By contrast, a customer using Coinbase’s basic “Advanced Trade” interface pays roughly 0.60% maker/1.20% taker at the highest tier and as little as 0.00%/0.05% at volume.

The fee gap can easily exceed 10-to-one.

Cumbersome know-your-customer/anti-money-laundering (KYC/AML) requirements. Since ATMs are classified as money transmitters under FinCEN’s 2019 virtual-currency guidance, operators must register as Money Services Businesses and perform Bank Secrecy Act KYC. In practice, that usually means scanning a driver’s license or passport at the machine, plus downloading the operator’s mobile app in advance or completing selfie/biometric checks on site. Sometimes there are lower KYC thresholds for smaller withdrawals or deposits, but those hurdles erase much of the “walk-up convenience” that initially made ATMs popular.

Regulatory challenges rise

In addition to these constraints, Rudden also believes crypto ATMs are facing serious regulatory challenges and has taken it upon himself to provide input to state lawmakers on proposed legislation. The need for political action was echoed during Vice President J.D. Vance’s keynote Bitcoin 2025 presentation.

“Our politicians are going to need your pressure,” Vance told his listeners. “What happens in the world of politics, what happens in the world of bureaucracy, it will affect even the most transformational and valuable technology if we don’t make the right decisions. The first thing I ask you is to take the momentum of your political involvement in 2024 and carry it forward in 2026 and beyond. Don’t ignore politics because I guarantee you my friends, politics is not going to ignore this community. Not now and not in the future.”

While Rudden would prefer to see the crypto ATM industry self-regulate, he recognizes that state and federal governments are proposing laws that could destroy his business. At the state level, he has met with Maryland lawmakers to make its proposed regulations more compatible with operator needs while at the same time addressing what he considers the very important issue of bitcoin scams. He recognizes that much of the proposed legislation is designed to protect people from scammers who lure them into depositing money in crypto ATMs.

The Maryland legislation was originally modeled on California’s law, which mandates what Rudden considers overly restrictive limits on the amount of crypto users can purchase in a single day and the transaction fees ATMs can charge. Maryland lawmakers moderated these restrictions.

Rudden also gave Maryland lawmakers input on a mandatory anti-scam warning to ensure that the warning is visible to the user, as well as a warning against using a QR code someone has instructed them to use to buy crypto from the machine, and not to allow someone on the phone to instruct them how to use the machine. “That’s a scam,” he said.

The bill has passed the Maryland legislature and is currently awaiting the governor’s signature.

Lobbying challenges on the rise

One problem Rudden encountered was that crypto ATM operators were not united on some of the law’s requirements. One operator, for example, wanted a requirement that the crypto ATM owner/operator could not also be the crypto ATM compliance officer.

“The owner/operator or CEO cannot also be the compliance officer,” he said, a requirement that is not economically feasible for smaller operating companies such as his.

This requirement isn’t necessary, Rudden said, because under the Bank Secrecy Act, which authorizes the Department of the Treasury to impose reporting requirements on financial institutions and other businesses to detect and prevent money laundering, requires an annual review for compliance officers by an independent auditor. “And that’s how you achieve your independence.”

Ultimately, Maryland lawmakers didn’t include that requirement, but the language did make it into an amendment proposed by Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, who has been active in federal crypto ATM legislation. Durbin recently proposed an amendment to the bipartisan GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins, which are designed to provide a more stable value by tying their value to specific assets that make them suitable for everyday transactions.

Rudden supports the proposed Durbin amendment’s goal – to protect users from crypto ATM scams – but not some of its requirements.

One Durbin stipulation Rudden does favor requires the crypto ATM operator to call and check with the customer before processing a transaction of $500 or more. “I do that right now,” Rudden said. “That’s a great regulation.”

On the other hand, another stipulation requires the operator to provide the customer a receipt that includes the transaction’s blockchain hash. “We have a conflict now,” Rudden said. “If I need to call the customer before the transaction, there won’t be any blockchain hash because the blockchain hash is generated when we sell the bitcoin to you.”

Another troubling part of the Durbin amendment entitles users who have been scammed to be fully compensated as long as they contact the crypto ATM operator within 30 days of their transaction.

“A full refund in the event of a scam is nothing more than mitigating an operator must take the position of a scam victim,” Rudden said. “That’s not going to stop scams.” In addition, people can game the system; buy crypto at the machine, then claim they were scammed and get their money back.

“It’s easy to see that these are very aggressive measures that in the end will blow up on our face,” Rudden said. He thinks the solution is to have lawmakers and operators meet to discuss workable solutions.

Targeting bitcoin scams

Durbin has claimed scammers contact elderly Americans, and using threats, intimidation and fabricated stories, coerce them into depositing money into the criminals’ crypto wallets via crypto ATMs. According to Durbin’s website, the amount consumers reported losing in this form of fraud increased nearly tenfold between 2020 and 2023 — from $12 million to $114 million, citing Federal Trade Commission data. In addition, in 2023 the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received nearly 2,700 crypto ATM fraud complaints from individuals aged 60 and older — more than all other age groups combined.

“They allow you to trade in cash for cryptocurrency, but they also are a frequent tool of scammers and fraudsters who prey on Americans, especially senior citizens,” Durbin stated in a recent press release announcing his amendment.

“States such as Nebraska, Arizona, and Connecticut have passed legislation to crack down on these scams,” Durbin said. “It’s time for Congress to do the same. The result of the so-called GENIUS Act is a dramatic increase in crypto activity. That means dramatic exposure to fraud. Let’s make sure this amendment, which I’m going to offer to the GENIUS Act, is adopted to protect innocent victims.”

The status of the Durbin amendment was uncertain at the time of this report. The GENIUS Act, passed by the Senate and awaiting Congressional approval, will enhance stablecoins as a payment system for Americans. President Trump, according to Vice President Vance, intends to sign the bill.

Trump embraces crypto

Meanwhile, the crypto industry continues to grow with the support of a more crypto friendly government under President Trump.

“You will never see this administration trying to handicap your community or diminish the impact it’s had on the economy,” Vance said during his presentation. “Instead, we reject the Biden administration’s legacy of death by a thousand enforcement actions. We reject regulators.”

“After four years of mistreatment and outright hostility led by Democrat regulators, lawmakers in this country have a choice,” Vance said. “Will we lead our nation into a future of financial sovereignty of innovation and prosperity, or will we let unelected bureaucrats and foreign competitors write the rules for us? And I’m here today to say, loud and clear, with President Trump, crypto finally has a champion and an ally in the White House.”

Vance further stated that Operation Chokepoint 2.0 – an Obama initiated supervisory action against banks that provided services to crypto businesses, gun manufacturers, payday loan companies and other businesses disfavored by the Obama Administration – has been terminated.

“To put it simply, Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is dead and it’s not coming back under the Trump Administration,” Vance said. “We reject the Biden administration’s legacy of death by a thousand enforcement actions.”

Lobbying efforts continue

Challenges still remain, however, in undoing the prior administrations’ damage, according to a conference panel during Bitcoin 2025.

Caitlin Long, founder and CEO, Custodia Bank, which focuses on digital asset payment and custody solutions, said Vance overstated his case when he said Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is dead. The Federal Reserve has rescinded some but not all of its guidance impacting the crypto industry, she said. She tweeted this to Vance following his talk and encouraged her listeners to do the same.

These restrictive actions, Long said, were controlled by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has been vocal about the national security threat posed by not properly regulating cryptocurrencies. Warren has publicly stated that without proper anti-money laundering regulations, bad actors are using crypto to evade U.S. sanctions, and that those actors are making hundreds of millions of dollars annually by acting as middlemen in the growing crypto ecosystem.

“The Fed is supposedly an independent agency, but I’m told by a lot of people that a number of career staff in D.C. were talking to Senator Warren all the time,” Long said.

Session moderator Seth Hertlein, head of policy at Ledger, a crypto wallet provider, noted that the recently introduced Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is designed to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets. The bill was introduced by Arkansas Congressman James French Hill, a Republican who is chairman of the House Committee On Financial Services, and has the support of five Republican co-sponsors and three Democrats..

“Our bill brings long-overdue clarity to the digital asset ecosystem, prioritizes consumer protection and American innovation, and builds off our work in the 118th Congress,” French said in a press release announcing the bill. “I look forward to delivering our bill to President Trump’s desk and securing America’s position as the global leader in digital assets.”

As crypto innovation and adoption increase, regulatory initiatives are bound to follow suit.

“I think we are in a new regulatory era not because of the Trump administration, but we’re still in a new regulatory era where crypto and bitcoin exist,” said conference panelist Zack Shapiro, head of policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. “The rules didn’t anticipate this type of technology to exist…How are we going to deal with this particular moment?”

The laws assume that if you transfer money electronically there will be an intermediary institution that is regulated as a money service business or money transmitter, Shapiro said. “And now it is possible to transfer money electronically with bitcoin, with stablecoins, without such an intermediary. There is no intermediary. And the question is, ‘What are the laws and regulations going to do about it?’”

Under the GENIUS Act, introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican, only permitted issuers can issue a payment stablecoin for use by U.S. persons, according to congress.gov. Permitted issuers must be a subsidiary of an insured depository institution, a federal-qualified nonbank payment stablecoin issuer or a state-qualified payment stablecoin issuer. Permitted issuers must be regulated by the appropriate federal or state regulator. Permitted issuers may choose federal or state regulation; however, state regulation is limited to those with a stablecoin issuance of $10 billion or less.

Photos

More Bitcoin ATM and Crypto ATM  Resources

• The Bitcoin ATM Market and Its Potential
• Bitcoin ATM: How They Function and Operate
• Bitcoin ATM KIosk
• Cryptocurrency ATMs and Why Criminals Love Them

Another Point of View

Outlook for Bitcoin ATMs and Crypto ATMs

The outlook for Bitcoin ATMs and broader crypto ATMs is highly optimistic, with forecasts pointing to rapid global expansion, technological innovation, and deeper integration into both financial and everyday consumer landscapes.

Explosive Market Growth

• The global crypto ATM market is experiencing exponential growth. Estimates project the market will surge from around $232 million in 2024 to as high as $7.6 billion by 2032, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 54%1. Other analyses are even more bullish, projecting the market could reach over $16.85 billion by 20334 or even $452 billion by 2037, with annual growth rates exceeding 55%24.

• In the United States alone, the market is expected to climb from $181.8 million in 2025 to nearly $4 billion by 2033, at a CAGR of 47.1%6.

Drivers of Adoption and Expansion

• Increasing Accessibility: The number of crypto ATMs has grown from just a handful in 2013 to nearly 38,000 worldwide by early 2025, with the majority located in the U.S.15. Installations continue at a rate of 10–20 new machines per day in the U.S., making crypto more accessible and familiar to the public5.

• Bridging Digital and Physical Worlds: Crypto ATMs simplify the process of buying and selling digital assets, providing a tangible and user-friendly interface, which is especially important for those less comfortable with online exchanges35.

• Financial Inclusion: These machines offer essential services to the unbanked and underbanked, enabling access to digital assets without requiring a traditional bank account57.

• Regulatory Clarity: Governments are increasingly establishing regulations for crypto ATMs, particularly around anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) compliance, which is helping to build trust and legitimacy146.

Technological and Service Innovations

• Multi-Currency Support: There is a growing trend toward ATMs that support multiple cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin, making them more versatile and attractive to users24.

• Enhanced Security: Future machines are expected to feature advanced security measures, including biometric verification, to protect users and transactions3.

• Expanded Services: Beyond simple buy/sell functions, crypto ATMs are beginning to offer bill payments, remittances, and portfolio management, further embedding them in everyday financial activity4.

Regional Trends

• North America: Continues to lead in both adoption and infrastructure, with the U.S. dominating global installations57.

• Europe and Asia-Pacific: These regions are seeing rapid growth, driven by increasing crypto awareness, favorable regulations, and technological investment7.

• Emerging Markets: Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa are leveraging crypto ATMs for financial inclusion and as a hedge against economic instability7.

Challenges and Considerations

• Regulatory Uncertainty: While regulatory frameworks are improving, ongoing changes could impact deployment and usage in some regions46.

• Competition from Digital Platforms: As mainstream crypto exchanges and fintech apps become more user-friendly, ATMs will need to continue innovating to maintain their relevance.

• Operational Costs: The cost of hardware, maintenance, and compliance may affect profitability and the pace of expansion in less developed markets.

Summary Table: Crypto ATM Market Outlook

Conclusion

Bitcoin ATMs and crypto ATMs are set for robust growth over the next decade, driven by increasing crypto adoption, regulatory clarity, and their unique role in bridging digital assets with the physical world. They are expected to become more widespread, technologically advanced, and integral to both mainstream finance and financial inclusion efforts globally134567.