The industry has since taken a few blows under heightened scrutiny. In recent months, the Canadian government announced a proposal to ban the machines, while Tennessee, Minnesota and Indiana passed legislation to outlaw them. Just last week, the world’s largest operator of crypto ATMs, Bitcoin Depot, filed for bankruptcy, citing litigation and government action.
As the crackdown widens, though, the crypto giants enabling these ATM operations have largely avoided scrutiny.
Because these machines often take in cash and convert that cash to bitcoin, having ready access to crypto reserves is an essential part of the business. But in some cases, big crypto players provided bitcoin to ATM operators that were later criminally charged, ICIJ found.
Jason Ghetian, a former FBI agent specializing in crypto scams, told ICIJ that the providers of large amounts of bitcoin to crypto ATMs should have been wary of those business relationships. “These exchanges could shut these ATMs down if they don't provide liquidity for them,” he said. Read more.
ALLEGED CRYPTO SCHEMER EXTRADITED TO US
Ukrainian national Olena Oblamska — also known as Lola Ferrari — appeared in court in Oregon after being extradited to the United States from Thailand. She was indicted for her alleged role in a $340 million global cryptocurrency fraud scheme, which featured in ICIJ’s Coin Laundry investigation.
TRUMP ADMIN CURBS STATE CRYPTO OVERSIGHT
A reinterpretation of banking rules has allowed federal authorities to grant some crypto companies special, slimmed-down national banking licenses. Those licenses come with minimal federal oversight — and immunity against a wide range of actions by state regulators.
CANCER CALCULUS LIVE PANEL
Last week, ICIJ featured our chief reporter, Sydney Freedberg, and Serif Health health economist and senior director of analytics Bill Pajerowski for a discussion on what Cancer Calculus investigation revealed about pharmaceutical pricing. Watch the full panel here.
BITCOIN DEPOT FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY
Formerly the world’s largest operator of cryptocurrency ATMs, the company filed for bankruptcy last week, the latest blow to an industry alleged to have facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud annually.
ICIJ AT DATAHARVEST
Catch ICIJ’s tech and data team at the Dataharvest conference, the European investigative journalism conference, in Belgium this weekend, with sessions on investigating cryptocurrency, handling leaks and cybersecurity.
Thanks for reading!
Carmen Molina Acosta
ICIJ's digital producer |
