Crypto▼ Bearish
Crypto ATM count drops 31% as Arizona refunds 35 scam victims
Arizona's attorney general recovered $171K for 35 scam victims under a 2025 refund law. Crypto ATM installations fell 31% globally and 44% in the U.S. as state, federal and international regulators tighten rules on cash-to-crypto kiosks.
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Arizona's attorney general said her office recovered $171,332 in full refunds for 35 victims under the state's Cryptocurrency Kiosk License Fraud Prevention law, which took effect Sept. 26, 2025.
The law requires operators to reimburse new customers who report a fraudulent transaction within 30 days. It also caps daily transactions at $2,000 for new customers and $10,500 for existing ones, and mandates scam warnings, acknowledgment screens, and receipts showing the destination wallet address.
"My office is happy to help any victim of crypto ATM fraud receive a refund they are entitled to under Arizona law," Attorney General Kris Mayes said.
Arizona accounted for 460 complaints and losses of $14.53 million in 2025, according to FBI data. Nationwide, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged more than 13,400 kiosk-related complaints last year with losses above $388 million, a 58% increase over 2024. More than half of those complaints came from people over 50, who lost $302 million.
The FBI described a specific fraud scheme where perpetrators tell victims to withdraw cash from bank accounts and deposit it at a crypto kiosk while keeping the phone line open. Older Americans are particularly vulnerable to that pattern, the bureau said.
The machines themselves tell the story. Coin ATM Radar data shows the number of crypto ATMs worldwide fell to 27,524 units as of Aug. 13, 2026, down 31.3% from the December 2022 peak of 40,072. The decline is steeper in the U.S., where installations dropped 43.6% from an August 2022 high of 35,037 to 19,754 units on Aug. 12.