Hawaii targets crypto kiosk scams with Oct. 1 cash deposit ban

CoinATMRadar data showed Hawaii had 57 cryptocurrency ATMs and kiosks operating across four main islands as of Aug. 12. Operators must disable the deposit function or stop offering machines that accept dollars for crypto before the October deadline.

Nationally, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received 13,460 kiosk-related complaints involving $388.98 million in adjusted losses in 2025. Complaint numbers rose 23% from 2024, while reported losses climbed 58%. More than half of the 2025 complaints came from people older than 50, whose reported losses exceeded $302 million, according to the bureau. That age data supports Hawaii lawmakers' finding that scammers often target older residents with urgent payment demands and impersonation schemes.

IC3 cautioned that its state totals cover complaints in which a cryptocurrency kiosk appeared somewhere in the fraud. A case may also involve bank transfers, payment apps, or other transaction methods, meaning the full loss in a complaint cannot always be pinned to the kiosk alone. Separate figures from the FBI's 2025 annual report showed Americans submitted 826 cryptocurrency-related complaints from Hawaii with losses of about $80 million, a broader figure that covers several forms of crypto-enabled crime.

Hawaii chose a narrower transaction ban than Indiana, Tennessee, and Minnesota, where state laws prohibit kiosk operations rather than only cash-to-crypto deposits. Minnesota's statewide prohibition took effect Aug. 1 after state authorities recorded 134 complaints and nearly $1 million in losses over three years. Existing machines there had to stop processing transactions, with operators given until Dec. 31 to remove kiosks accessible to the public. Tennessee began enforcing its own prohibition July 1. Georgia took a different route the same day, keeping the machines under transaction caps, customer warnings, and refund duties for some fraud victims. Indiana's ban entered force in March. Delaware and New Jersey lawmakers have advanced proposals to prohibit crypto ATMs, though neither had become law as of August.

Other states permit the machines but require licensing, warning screens, receipts, holding periods, daily limits, or refunds in defined fraud cases. At the federal level, kiosk operators that qualify as money services businesses must register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and meet Bank Secrecy Act duties, including an anti-money laundering program, transaction records, suspicious activity reports, and sanctions controls. Federal registration does not stop states from imposing stricter operating rules.

Act 224 dropped a requirement for a complete shutdown when a machine can support permitted services. Operators may retain crypto-to-cash withdrawals and exchanges between digital assets, provided they do not accept U.S. currency from customers purchasing crypto after Oct. 1.