Retailers profit from crypto ATM boom as scams devastate victims

In December 2024, Steve Beckett drove to a Circle K in Indiana and deposited $7,000 into a Bitcoin Depot ATM, converting his life savings into cryptocurrency at the direction of scammers who had convinced him his accounts were compromised. The machine, one of more than 8,000 operated by Bitcoin Depot across North America, charged approximately $2,000 in fees for the transaction. Beckett lost everything.

The convenience store chain earned millions from its partnership with Bitcoin Depot, even as complaints about scams mounted. According to a recent SEC filing, Bitcoin Depot operated ATMs in approximately 750 Circle K stores across the U.S. and Canada as of September 2024. The relationship accounted for nearly a quarter of Bitcoin Depot's revenue that year.

Background and Context

Crypto ATMs have proliferated globally, with nearly 40,000 machines now operating worldwide according to industry tracker Coin ATM Radar. As the network expanded, so did criminal exploitation. The FBI received nearly 11,000 fraud complaints involving crypto ATMs in 2024—a 99% increase from the previous year—representing approximately $247 million in losses. By November 2025, losses had surged to around $333 million.

The surge in scams has become entangled with the business models of both ATM operators and retailers. Circle K's deal with Bitcoin Depot, signed in 2021 and extended through mid-2026, represents one of the largest collaborations between a retail chain and a crypto ATM operator globally. The agreement proved lucrative: Circle K received as much as $700 monthly per machine in rent, according to documents reviewed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and CNN.

Key Figures and Entities

Bitcoin Depot, founded and led by CEO Brandon Mintz, operates the largest crypto ATM network in the United States. The company installed its first machine in 2016 and rapidly expanded through retail partnerships. In a 2019 conference, Mintz emphasized the importance of placing machines in familiar retail locations to build trust in cryptocurrency transactions.

Circle K, owned by Canadian parent company Alimentation Couche-Tard, hosts Bitcoin Depot machines across more than 6,300 U.S. stores. Court records and internal communications show that store managers repeatedly reported scams to corporate leadership. In one body camera recording obtained by investigators, a Circle K district manager told police, "I hate these machines. I'd like to get them out of the stores."

Other major operators face similar scrutiny. Iowa's attorney general alleged in a lawsuit that more than half of Bitcoin Depot's transactions in the state between October 2021 and July 2024 involved scams. Comparable allegations were made against CoinFlip and Athena Bitcoin, the second and third largest operators respectively.

Legal and Financial Mechanisms

Crypto ATMs function as physical portals for converting cash into cryptocurrency. Users insert cash, which the machine converts to bitcoin and transfers to a digital wallet address. Bitcoin Depot charged between 15% and 50% per transaction in 2024, according to corporate filings, significantly higher than traditional financial services.

Scammers exploit these machines because transactions are instantaneous and largely irreversible. "The money can instantaneously be put into a wallet under their control and transferred overseas," explained Mike McGillicuddy, an FBI special agent specializing in financial crimes. The machines use unhosted wallets, giving users complete control over their funds—but also removing protections available through centralized exchanges.

While operators like Bitcoin Depot place warnings on their machines and require users to acknowledge that transactions are "final and irreversible," these measures often fail to stop determined scams. Victims, psychologically manipulated after hours or days of coercion, frequently bypass or ignore these safeguards.

International Implications and Policy Response

The convergence of retail partnerships and crypto-enabled crime has prompted regulatory action across multiple jurisdictions. By September 2024, 18 U.S. states had passed laws or regulations targeting crypto ATM scams, including transaction limits and mandatory refunds in some cases. AARP reports that more states are considering similar legislation.

Iowa enacted particularly stringent restrictions in 2025, limiting transactions to $1,000 daily for first-time users and capping operator fees at $5 or 15% per transaction. Minnesota imposed a $2,000 daily limit for new users in August 2024, though scammers adapted by instructing victims to make multiple small transactions.

Some retailers have attempted to distance themselves from the machines. Fareway Stores, a grocery chain, unplugged all 66 Bitcoin Depot ATMs in February 2025 after becoming "instrumentalities of massive fraud," according to court filings. However, legal pressure from Bitcoin Depot and new state regulations led the company to reactivate the machines with the hope that legal limits would reduce customer harm.

Sources

This report draws on court filings from Iowa's Attorney General Office, corporate SEC filings, Coin ATM Radar industry data, ICIJ investigations, and interviews with law enforcement, victims, and industry insiders conducted between 2019 and 2025.