Bitcoin Depot Files Chapter 11, Shuts Down 9,000 Crypto ATMs

Bitcoin Depot filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 18 in the Southern District of Texas, announcing it would wind down operations and that its 9,000-plus kiosk locations would go offline the same day. The filing lands on top of a May 12 SEC disclosure showing first-quarter revenue down 49.2% year-over-year, gross profit down 85.5%, a $9.5M net loss versus $12.2M of net income a year earlier, and management flagging substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern.

The company tied the deterioration to a stack of pressures: state and municipal restrictions, lower transaction limits, enhanced identity verification, litigation, and more than $20M in accrued legal judgments. FinCEN's published kiosk fee range of 7% to 20% was always going to be hard to defend against the combination of fraud losses and stricter KYC, and the FTC reported $65M+ in Bitcoin ATM fraud in the first half of 2024 alone, with a median loss of $10,000.

Why it matters

The Bitcoin ATM model was pitched as a cash on-ramp for the underbanked, but the unit economics and the political durability of senior-fraud enforcement were never compatible. FBI data for 2025 logged 13,460 crypto-kiosk complaints and $389M in reported losses, up 58% year-over-year, with adults 60+ accounting for roughly $257.5M of that. That concentration in elderly victims is why Indiana enacted a statewide ban, Tennessee made operating such kiosks a Class A misdemeanor, and Minnesota approved a 2026 ban — the kind of political coalition standard AML enforcement rarely attracts.

The US still hosts about 78% of the global installed base, roughly 30,617 machines at the end of 2025, up just 1.65% on the year while Australia added 601 machines (a 43% jump) and Canada grew 8.4%. The growth is migrating to jurisdictions where regulators still treat kiosks as financial-inclusion tools.

Market impact

Bitcoin Depot's roughly 9,000 kiosks represented about 23% of the global total at year-end 2025; if those assets are not reactivated, the global installed base contracts directly before any further state bans compound the loss.