Update (September 24th, 5:22pm UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from Cynthia Ramis.
As members of the US Senate Banking Committee plan to vote for the law to address the digital asset market structure by the end of the month, one supporter of the bill suggests that Chamber’s version can address fraud through cryptocurrency ATMs.
Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Ramis said in Monday’s X-Post that one of the issues she and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s “want to address the market structure” issues was an example of a fraud involving Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs.
She cited a report that the Cheyenne Police Department “identified 50 instances of fraud.”
To date, the federal government has not passed any laws specifically addressing fraud from crypto ATMs and kiosks. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that it received approximately 11,000 complaints about fraud cases in Crypto Kiosks in 2024, resulting in more than $246 million in losses.
Lummis’ statement is expected to see the Senate Banking Committee, a member of the majority party, vote for the bill to establish clear rules for US digital assets regulation and cryptocurrency companies. The Wyoming Senator said he hopes the bill will be signed into law by 2026.
The US House of Representatives passed a version of the market structure, the Clarity Act, in July, but the final text did not appear to be referring to ATMs.
Similarly, the latest Senate draft bill released by Republican leaders in September did not mention crypto kiosks or ATMs.
Related: Crypto ATM restrictions and bans clean us up: this is why
Many in the cryptocurrency industry have been keeping an eye on Congress for updates on market structure since the House passed a clear law in July. Last week, members of Congress met with several industry executives to discuss upcoming legislation, including the Market Structure Bill and the bill that would allow the US government to hold up to 1 million BTC in the National Cryptocurrency.
Lummis’ remarks show that as of Monday, versions of the Senate market structure may still be in liquidity. House Republicans have already voted to retrospectively add the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) ban to the clarification, but it was unclear what the final text of the Senate bill would be at the time of publication.
“Consumer protection is important to building a strong digital economy,” Lummis told Cointelegraph. “I hope that the bipartisan market structure law can build guardian Senator Gilibrand, which we created in our bill to punish bad actors without limiting innovation.
Not the first federal law to propose to deal with Crypto ATM scams
In February, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin introduced the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act to address what is called the “surprising trends in US crypto ATM fraud.” The bill proposed that ATM operators should “warn consumers about fraud and require reasonable measures to prevent fraud on machines.”
The bill was referred to the Senate Banking Committee and did not advance for floor votes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ljpqxtupnc
US states and cities are also working on this.
Without comprehensive federal laws to address cryptographic ATM fraud, many US states and local governments have passed their own laws.
Cities such as Stillwater, Minnesota, and Spokane, Washington, banned crypto kiosks and ATMs in response to a surge in fraudulent activity, but the city council in Gross Point Farms, Michigan, preempted a $1,000 trading limit for crypto kiosks a day. This area had no crypto ATMs when the rules were passed.
As of August, 13 US state governments had passed laws restricting daily trading restrictions, refunds if someone is fraudulent, and crypto ATM activities from warnings that were prominently displayed on the kiosk itself. Other provisions included registration with state authorities.
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