Regulators Order Bitcoin ATM Giant Coinme to Repay $8M, Halt Operations
Washington state’s Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) has ordered Bitcoin ATM operator Coinme to halt all cash transmission providers and repay over $8 million to prospects. The regulator issued a Temporary Cease and Desist Order on December 1, 2025, alleging the Seattle-based agency illegally transformed unredeemed buyer funds into company income.
The DFI’s investigation discovered that Coinme required prospects to buy paper vouchers at kiosks and redeem them on-line. When vouchers went unredeemed inside a particular timeframe, Coinme allegedly claimed the excellent balances as its personal revenue, a violation of the state’s Uniform Money Services Act.
“Washington’s cash transmission legal guidelines exist to shield shoppers that depend on licensed corporations to safely transmit funds,” DFI Director Charlie Clark stated.
Is Bitcoin ATM Operator Coinme About to Lose Its License?
The order additionally fees that from 2020 to 2025, Coinme failed to keep its legally required tangible web value, submitted inaccurate reviews, and didn’t correctly disclose redemption timeframes to customers.
Coinme now faces a possible revocation of its state cash transmitter license, a $300,000 high-quality, and a potential 10-year business ban for the corporate and its CEO, Neil Bergquist. The firm has 20 days to request a listening to earlier than the order turns into everlasting.
In a statement, Coinme Chief Compliance Officer Ben Enea mentioned the corporate is cooperating with regulators.
The Institutional Take
This motion in opposition to Coinme is a major escalation within the regulatory marketing campaign concentrating on the operational gray areas of crypto-to-fiat gateways. For institutional desks, the important thing threat isn’t the solvency of 1 ATM operator however the precedent it units for the remedy of buyer funds held in limbo.
Regulators are clearly signaling an finish to the tolerance of treating unclaimed crypto property as breakage or miscellaneous revenue. This transfer pressures all consumer-facing crypto providers to tighten their accounting, escheatment, and disclosure insurance policies, introducing new compliance overhead that would compress margins for the whole sector.
The publish Regulators Order Bitcoin ATM Giant Coinme to Repay $8M, Halt Operations appeared first on Cryptonews.
