Tennessee Becomes Second State to Outlaw Bitcoin, Crypto ATMs

Tennessee has go the 2nd U.S. authorities to outlaw Bitcoin ATMs, making it a transgression discourtesy successful the Volunteer State to ain oregon run the machines that national authorities person identified arsenic a vector committing fraud against the elderly.

Whether operators’ kiosks let customers to acquisition Bitcoin oregon different integer assets with cash, they person until July 1 to propulsion the plug nether House Bill 2505, which Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into instrumentality connected April 13 pursuing the legislation’s instauration earlier this year.

The authorities was co-sponsored by Republican authorities representatives Cameron Sexton and Jay Reedy. In a March statement, Sexton said the kiosks “have go a gateway for scammers to exploit Tennesseans, particularly our seniors.”

Sexton noted that victims defrauded portion utilizing Bitcoin ATMs often person small anticipation of recovering their wealth erstwhile it’s gone. That was astir the clip that section authorities warned of a scam wherever victims had mislaid $4 cardinal to overseas scammers posing arsenic instrumentality enforcement.

Reedy, a certified maestro beef producer, said “Crypto ATMs person fixed scammers a accelerated and casual mode to people our citizens and scare them into draining their savings.”

The two-page bill, which was introduced successful February, classifies violations arsenic a Class A misdemeanor, connected par successful Tennessee with elemental cause possession and home assault.

In total, Tennessee hosts 651 Bitcoin ATMs, with a bulk of them clustered astir Nashville, the state’s astir populous metropolis and capital, according to Coin ATM Radar. The locations scope from state stations and fume shops to liquor stores.

According to FBI numbers released this month, Americans aged implicit 60 mislaid $257 cardinal to scams involving Bitcoin ATMs past year, a 58% summation year-over-year. Citizens nether 30, for comparison, mislaid $6.6 cardinal to that benignant of scam successful 2025.

In March, Indiana became the archetypal U.S. authorities to enforce a sweeping prohibition connected Bitcoin ATMs, per WLFI. The work cited 1 instrumentality enforcement authoritative who said, “The fig of reports has doubled each twelvemonth for the past 4 years.”

Amid an uptick successful scams, respective states person passed authorities imposing transaction limits and mandating refunds for victims. In Minnesota, lawmakers are weighing legislation that would travel Tennessee’s pb and prohibition Bitcoin ATMs crossed the state.