Earlier this month, I wrote about how the Canadian government was planning to ban crypto ATMs. That post opened with a large image of someone in apparent distress, kneeling in front a Bitcoin Depot ATM.
Well, now it’s Bitcoin Depot that’s in distress: the company, which is the largest operator of crypto ATMs in North America, filed for bankruptcy on May 18. Their network of Bitcoin ATMs is already offline.
The company blames a hack occurring in April of this year, in which they lost nearly 51 Bitcoins (~3.67 million USD at the time), as well as regulations, lawsuits, and bans from various US state governments (Indiana and Tennessee banned them entirely). Regulatory action against crypto ATM operators has stepped up as these machines are increasingly used to facilitate fraud. Transactions using crypto are generally irreversible (exceptions can apply if you are very wealthy), as Bitcoin Depot knows all too well.
Bitcoin Depot has now asked the courts to wind down a business built on transactions that cannot be unwound.