Overview
- City council approved the measure this week to prohibit crypto kiosks and cashier-assisted virtual currency transactions inside Albuquerque city limits.
- The city will notify known operators and the businesses that host their machines and give them 45 days from that notice to remove the kiosks.
- Officials cited widespread kiosk-enabled fraud in New Mexico and national FBI data showing large numbers of kiosk complaints and rapid, often irreversible transfers as the reason for the ban.
- Residents retain the right to buy, sell, hold, mine, and transfer digital currency through online exchanges and personal wallets because the rule targets physical points of sale, not ownership or online activity.
- The move follows a string of state and local restrictions and recent industry stress, including Bitcoin Depot’s Chapter 11 and mass kiosk withdrawals, which could shrink the kiosk sector and prompt similar actions elsewhere.