Minnesota became one of the first states to ban cryptocurrency ATMs outright on August 1, 2026, after regulators traced roughly $1 million in elder-fraud losses to scammers who pressured victims into feeding cash into the machines.
Why it matters
Crypto kiosks have become a favored tool in impersonation scams because transactions are fast, cash-based, and irreversible -- once a victim feeds bills into the machine, the funds convert to crypto and move out of reach within minutes, with no bank fraud department able to claw it back.
What to watch
Operators must deactivate kiosks statewide and remove them from public locations by December 31, 2026; nationwide, the FBI logged over 13,000 kiosk-related fraud complaints totaling nearly $389 million in 2025 alone, and other states are watching Minnesota's ban as a model.