The North Dakota Senate has approved a bill regulating crypto ATMs, reinstating a $2,000 daily transaction cap per user that was previously removed by the state’s House.
House Bill 1447, which aims to introduce stricter oversight of crypto ATMs to protect residents from fraud, was passed by a 45-to-1 vote on March 18.
Introduced to the state’s legislative assembly on January 15, the bill mandates that crypto ATM and kiosk operators be licensed as money transmitters in North Dakota.
It also imposes a network-wide withdrawal limit of $2,000 per customer per day and requires operators to display fraud warning notices.
Crypto kiosks or ATMs enable users to convert cash into cryptocurrency and transfer it to their electronic wallets.
They also allow individuals with electronic wallets to exchange cryptocurrency for cash and withdraw it.
The details of the bill
The initial version of the bill set a $1,000 daily transaction cap, but a House committee later amended it to allow $2,000 daily transactions for the first five transactions within a 30-day period.
However, the Senate has now established a firm $2,000 per-day limit. The bill will return to the House for approval of the changes before it reaches Governor Kelly Armstrong, who can either sign it into law or veto it.
Beyond transaction limits, the bill requires crypto ATM operators to use blockchain analytics to monitor suspicious activity and report potential fraud to authorities.
Additionally, operators must submit quarterly reports detailing kiosk locations, names, and transaction data.
During a North Dakota House Industry, Business, and Labor Committee hearing on January 22, House Representative Steve Swiontek, the bill’s primary sponsor, highlighted concerns over the lack of consumer protections in crypto ATMs, which he argued have been exploited by criminals.
Growing push for crypto ATM regulations
According to AARP, cryptocurrency fraud in North Dakota led to losses exceeding $6 million in 2023, while the FBI received over 5,500 complaints related to crypto kiosks nationwide that year.
North Dakota is not alone in its efforts to regulate crypto ATMs.
On March 13, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen signed into law the Controllable Electronic Record Fraud Prevention Act, a similar piece of legislation designed to curb fraud.
At the federal level, US Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois introduced legislation on February 25 to address crypto ATM-related fraud.
Durbin cited a case where a scammer convinced a victim that authorities had issued a warrant for their arrest, instructing them to deposit $15,000 into a crypto ATM to avoid jail.
The Federal Trade Commission reported that fraud losses from Bitcoin ATMs had surged nearly tenfold from 2020 to 2023, surpassing $65 million in the first half of 2024 alone.
Consumers aged 60 and older were found to be three times more likely to fall victim to these scams.
Despite the concerns over fraud, the US remains the dominant market for Bitcoin ATMs, hosting 29,822 machines—accounting for 78% of the global total, according to Coin ATM Radar.
Canada ranks second, with 3,486 crypto ATMs (9.2% market share), followed by Australia, which has 1,613 machines, representing 4.3% of the market.
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