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Over 50 such incidents were reported in Cheyenne alone, the capital of Lummis’s state, totaling around $645,000. Overall, the FBI reports that there were over 11,000 incidents of fraud nationwide in 2024.
Market Structure Bill
The US Senate Banking Committee has jurisdiction over ATM operations in the country and is currently deliberating on a new market structure bill to address concerns related to cryptocurrency. Members of the group are expected to vote on the new bill by the end of this month, with Senator Lummis’s full backing.
She tweeted:
“This is something that has concerned me for a long time, and @SenGillibrand and I first introduced legislation stopping bad actors in the crypto kiosk space in 2023. This is just one of the issues we hope to address in market structure.”
 
Crypto Brings Opposing Sides Together
The senator mentioned in her tweet is Kirsten Gillibrand, a democrat from New York. It is interesting to see how the crypto issue is bringing together two politically contrasting places, with Gillibrand’s New York being a densely populated liberal stronghold, while Lummis’s deeply conservative state is the least populated.
While crypto adoption is growing steadily in the country and crypto-related debit cards are becoming increasingly popular, the US Capitol has yet to pass consumer protection laws regarding crypto ATMs and kiosks.
However, there were some attempts to address this issue. In February, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin introduced the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act. Still, his efforts failed to advance as the US Banking Committee disapproved the follow-through to the Senate floor.
CLARITY ACT Continuation
The recently passed CLARITY Act, drafted by the US House of Representatives, addressed other market structure concerns, but ATMs weren’t mentioned. The US Senate is likely to deliberate the issue further, and these added concerns are expected to be discussed, firstly in the committee and then on the Senate floor.
It is yet unclear what the final version of the draft will be when it reaches the floor for a vote. In the absence of federal legislation, 13 states have enacted laws restricting crypto ATM activity to limit fraudulent transactions. Registration with local authorities is also mandated for these teller machines and kiosks.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/bitcoin-atm-fraud-to-be-solved-through-market-structure-us-senator/
