Key Highlights
- Crypto ATM scams led to losses of over $333.5 million in 2025, marking a sharp 33% increase compared to 2024.
- The proposed bill sets a $2,000 daily deposit limit and introduces a 30-day window for victims to request refunds.
- Data shows that around 85% of victims are aged 60 and above, with average losses reaching nearly $17,000 per case.
New Hampshire’s state Senate passed a consumer protection bill on March 26 that would, for the first time, regulate cryptocurrency ATMs operating in the state. The legislation, Senate Bill 482, cleared the chamber on a voice vote and now moves to the House, where its toughest provisions may face a serious fight.
The push for reform has been building for some time. Law enforcement officials and advocacy groups say New Hampshire’s lack of any regulation on crypto ATMs has turned the state into something of a soft target for scammers, particularly those running government impersonation, tech-support, and business fraud schemes that funnel victims toward these machines.
The scale of the problem
Ray Lamy, a fraud and financial crimes investigator with the Manchester Police Department, told the Senate Commerce Committee that between 2021 and 2025, his unit handled 66 fraud cases tied to the 22 crypto ATMs operating in the city, with victims losing an average of $17,000 per case. The average victim, he said, was 73 years old.
Hampton Police Chief Alex Reno painted an even bleaker picture. Since the end of 2024 alone, residents of his town lost $2.6 million to scammers directing them to one of the 30 crypto ATMs within a 15-mile radius. He described one case involving an 80-year-old woman who had been trying to close an online retail account and was talked into bringing $17,000 in cash to a machine. She only realized she had been robbed after a friend stepped in.
Senate Majority Leader Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, went through a list of losses in her own district during debate: $1 million from a 63-year-old in Derry, another million in Epping, $100,000 in Litchfield, $17,000 in Littleton. “This is getting to be a scourge on our elderly,” she said. “They have decided New Hampshire is a great place to do this.”
AARP’s New Hampshire chapter said its survey data found 85% of those scammed through the machines in the state were 60 years or older. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella’s office estimates approximately 250 such machines are currently operating across the state. Twenty-four states, including neighboring Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, have already adopted limits on these machines.
The numbers at the national level are just as alarming. The FBI reported $333.5 million in crypto ATM scam losses from January through November 2025 alone, up roughly 33% from $250 million in 2024. The FTC found that in the first half of 2024, people over 60 were more than three times as likely as younger adults to report losing money at a crypto ATM, accounting for about 71% of all reported losses through these machines during that period.
What SB 482 would do
The bill, as passed by the Senate, would impose four main requirements on crypto ATM operators doing business with New Hampshire residents, regardless of where in the country the machine is physically located.
First, it would cap deposits at $2,000 per day. That is a significant step down from the original bill sponsored by Sen. Tim McGough, R-Merrimack, which would have allowed $5,000 for first-time users and $15,000 for established ones. Second, customers who believe they have been scammed would have 30 days to request a full refund from the operator.
No state that has already enacted regulations has a refund window shorter than 14 days, and Maine and Vermont both allow 90 days. Third, operators would be required to provide receipts that break down all transaction details, including fees, which can run as high as 30% on some machines compared to roughly 1.5% for buying crypto through an online exchange.
Fourth, machines would have to display prominent fraud warnings, both on the kiosk itself and visually to the user, before any transaction is completed.
McGough, who had originally filed a version more favorable to the industry, fully backed the final amendments. “We can’t always prevent someone from making a bad decision or getting scammed, but industry and advocacy have come together,” he said. “This is the right thing to do for our citizens.”
Birdsell said she intends to keep pushing for stronger measures in the House, pointing to the 90-day refund windows in Maine and Vermont as a benchmark worth matching.
Christina FitzPatrick, director of New Hampshire’s AARP chapter, called the Senate vote an important step forward and noted that AARP has made cracking down on crypto ATM fraud a national legislative priority, with federal legislation also being pursued in Congress. A federal bill, the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act of 2025, has been introduced in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol level as well.
The industry pushback
Not everyone is on board. House Majority Floor Leader Keith Ammon, R-New Boston, who is considered a legislative expert on digital finance in the chamber, said the bill misidentifies the problem. He argued that scammers exploit every payment channel available, including gift cards, wire transfers, Venmo, and even gold bars, and that singling out crypto ATMs with restrictions that would not apply to comparable payment methods sends the wrong message.
“I look forward to crafting an approach that protects consumers without punishing a legitimate industry for the actions of criminals,” Ammon said.
He also raised concerns about New Hampshire’s carefully built reputation as a leader in digital asset policy. The state was the first in the country to pass a crypto reserve law, and its Business Finance Authority recently structured what has been described as the world’s first Bitcoin-backed municipal bond. Ammon co-authored the crypto reserve legislation and has noted that the first prototype of a cryptocurrency vending machine was built in Manchester and demonstrated in Nashua back in 2013.
Industry representatives had already warned the Senate Commerce Committee that Vermont’s $1,000 deposit limit caused most crypto ATM operators to simply pull their machines from the state entirely.
Ammon sits on the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee, which will be the next stop for the bill. That committee has a well-established pro-business record, and observers say the limits the Senate approved are likely to represent the ceiling rather than the floor of what eventually reaches the governor’s desk.
A public hearing in the House committee is expected sometime next month.
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