A bill has been introduced into the main legislative body of the state of California, the initiators of which propose to fight fraud by limiting the withdrawal of cash from crypto ATMs – no more than $1,000 per day.

Fees charged to users of digital assets for withdrawing cash from cryptocurrency ATMs, as well as inflated daily cash withdrawal limits, entail an unacceptable level of risk, local officials who introduced the bill believe.

The reason was the results of a study of a network of crypto ATMs installed in California. For example, in the city of Sacramento, cryptomats were discovered that carried out transactions for the sale, exchange and withdrawal of digital assets into fiat with markups of up to 33% compared to the prices of similar services on crypto exchanges.

Owners of crypto assets can withdraw up to $50,000 per day through crypto ATMs, officials lament. While in traditional ATMs the daily cash withdrawal limit does not exceed $1,500. In addition, authorities are concerned about the increase in cases of fraud, when a potential victim is persuaded to use a crypto ATM and purchase a fake asset.

Crypto ATM manufacturers and operators said in response that the new bill would harm the industry and retailers that collect rental fees for the devices. Operators are confident that the new bill does not affect the preconditions for fraud. Instead of solving specific problems, entrepreneurs complain, the authorities are choosing repression and a punitive policy focused on a specific technology.

A year earlier, the Miami Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that crypto ATMs were becoming a popular tool used by fraudsters to launder criminal proceeds and steal money from defrauded victims.