Delaware and New Jersey Advance Comprehensive Ban on Cryptocurrency ATMs
The Delaware House Economic Committee has passed a bill proposing a comprehensive ban on the possession, installation, or operation of cryptocurrency ATM devices, requiring existing devices to be removed within 90 days after the bill takes effect, with fines for violations up to $10,000. The New Jersey Senate Commerce Committee has also unanimously passed a similar bill, with fines for violations reaching up to $20,000.
According to FBI data from May, there were nearly 13,500 fraud complaints involving crypto ATMs in 2025, resulting in losses exceeding $388 million, a significant increase from the previous year, with over half of the victims aged 50 and above. Several states, including Indiana, Tennessee, and Minnesota, have already implemented a complete ban.
Market mechanisms indicate that regulatory bans are accelerating the exit of cryptocurrency ATM operators, with funds shifting from high-risk terminal devices to compliant exchanges and on-chain protocols, benefiting regulated centralized platforms while putting pressure on traditional ATM operators like Bitcoin Depot.
Source: Public Information
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Delaware and New Jersey's actions continue the trend of anti-fraud regulations against crypto ATMs across multiple U.S. states, following complete bans in states like Indiana. FBI data shows a rapid increase in fraud losses, with regulatory focus aimed at protecting the elderly from common scams like "pig butchering."
From a capital perspective, operators face pressure from equipment removal and fines, accelerating exits or transformations. While this move may short-term impact offline terminal businesses, it pushes the industry towards exchanges and DeFi protocols with strict KYC, while prompting remaining operators to enhance risk warnings and transaction limits to comply with regulatory scrutiny.
Similar to previous tightening of state-level regulations on high-risk crypto services, the U.S. crypto industry is currently transitioning from offline terminal expansion to strict compliance online, with multiple state bans accelerating the normalization process of the entire ecosystem.
Essentially, this represents a shift in regulation and capital concentration: a comprehensive ban on crypto ATMs directly targets high-fraud terminals, accelerating the movement of crypto capital from high-risk offline devices to regulated centralized platforms and on-chain protocols, reshaping the compliance thresholds and risk distribution structure of crypto payment gateways.
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The greater the fraud losses, the quicker the regulatory hammer falls.
The easier it is for terminals to remain anonymous, the higher the compliance barriers become.
The more urgent the protection of vulnerable groups, the faster the window for industry normalization is accelerated.