Jackson, Michigan is outlawing cryptocurrency ATMs citywide, giving operators 90 days to remove the machines or face daily fines after officials tied them to financial exploitation.
The Jackson City Council moved to prohibit the kiosks outright. Its ordinance bars anyone from installing, permitting, or hosting cryptocurrency ATMs, often called Bitcoin ATMs or BTMs, inside city limits. It also bans virtual cryptocurrency transactions run through a cashier.
The Sun reported the rule takes effect October 22. Operators then get 90 days to pull the machines. Leave one standing past that window, and the city can levy $500-a-day civil infractions. The Sun also cited FBI figures of $389 million stolen in cryptocurrency ATM scams across the United States last year.
The kiosks accept cash or a debit card, convert U.S. dollars into cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, and send the funds to a digital wallet. That handoff is what drew the council’s response.
Fraud crews contact targets by text, email, or phone. They create urgency, demand payment, and walk the victim through a cash withdrawal and a deposit at a crypto kiosk. The money leaves as cash and lands in the criminal’s digital wallet. Recovery gets much harder from there.
In its adopted resolution, the Jackson City Council stated:
"The City Council finds that the continued operation of virtual currency kiosks within the city poses a significant risk to public welfare, facilitates financial exploitation and undermines consumer protection efforts,"
Officials cast the ban as a consumer-protection step meant to cut off that final transfer. The machines do not invent the scam. They finish it.
Jason Lachowski, AARP Michigan associate state director of advocacy, told MLive the kiosks are a "growing threat to the financial security of all Michiganders."
Seniors and busy working people are prime marks for pressure schemes. A kiosk that turns a panicked cash withdrawal into untraceable crypto in minutes gives the crook a clean exit. Jackson decided not to keep offering that exit inside city limits.
Operators still have a clock. Ninety days after October 22, every crypto ATM left in place can cost $500 a day. The council’s message is simple: remove them, or pay.
A city cannot stop every scam call. It can refuse to leave the cash-to-crypto handoff machine sitting there for the people who run them.