Sponsors (6)
Official title: Amend title 31, United States Code, to prevent fraudulent transactions at virtual currency kiosks, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 25, 2025 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress February 25, 2025
The bill strengthens consumer protections and gives regulators and law enforcement more tools to detect and deter kiosk-based crypto fraud, but does so by increasing data collection, privacy risks, costly compliance requirements, and heavy enforcement exposure that may raise fees and reduce kiosk availability—especially for small operators and their customers.
Customers who use physical cryptocurrency kiosks will have stronger consumer protections: operators must verify IDs, monitor transactions, display fraud warnings and receipts, and provide full refunds for new customers (30 days) and fee refunds for existing customers.
Law enforcement and FinCEN will have greater ability to trace illicit activity and deter money laundering and fraud because operators must regularly report kiosk locations and wallet data and FinCEN gains stronger enforcement tools (civil penalties, record requests, mandatory reporting).
Consumers benefit from greater transparency and accountability: regulators will have records linking kiosks to operator identities, and mandatory disclosures/receipts clarify fees and transaction finality.
Customers face substantial privacy risks because the law requires collection and retention of kiosk locations, wallet addresses, identity data, and transaction hashes, increasing surveillance and potential exposure of personal financial information.
Kiosk operators—often small businesses—will incur recurring and potentially high compliance costs (reporting every 90 days, identity systems, blockchain analytics, staffed compliance and live customer service), raising operating expenses.
Heavy enforcement exposure (large per-violation civil penalties, triple damages for willful refund denials) plus risks from mistaken or incomplete reporting could disproportionately threaten small operators and reduce kiosk availability, harming customer access.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires crypto ATM operators to register kiosks, verify IDs, monitor transactions, report to FinCEN, and subjects them to penalties for violations.
Requires operators of cryptocurrency ATMs (“virtual currency kiosks”) to register kiosk locations and maintain detailed, frequent records with the Treasury; requires identity verification, transaction monitoring, recordkeeping, and periodic reporting to FinCEN; directs FinCEN to issue model standards and issue regulations; and creates civil penalties and administrative enforcement for noncompliance. The requirements take effect 90 days after enactment.