Bitcoin Depot, the largest bitcoin ATM operator in North America, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday and will wind down its network of more than 9,000 ATMs, it said.
Bitcoin Depot CEO Alex Holmes, in a statement Monday, faulted a regulatory landscape he said is becoming markedly unfriendly to bitcoin teller machine companies.
“States have imposed increasingly stringent compliance obligations, including new transaction limits, and in some jurisdictions, outright bans on BTM operations,” Holmes said Monday.
Indeed, Tennessee in April became the second U.S. state, following Indiana, to outlaw BTMs; that ban goes into effect July 1. A similar ban is being considered across Canada, which Bitcoin Depot also serves.
Holmes, in Monday’s statement, cited “increasing litigation and regulatory enforcement” faced by BTM operators.
The attorneys general of Massachusetts and Iowa, for example, sued Bitcoin Depot in February 2025, alleging the company played a role in bilking $20 million from hundreds of state residents, most over age 60.
“Con artists are evil and will stop at nothing to steal everything you have,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement last year. “We already know that they target older Iowans, but now it seems that they even hunt through obituaries to target widows. They convince these older women that they need help, and then send their victims to crypto ATMs. And the crypto ATM companies take a cut of the profits.”
The Iowa AG’s office said it subpoenaed 14 crypto ATM companies in 2023 as part of an investigation into money sent through bitcoin ATMs over a three-year span.
Bitcoin Depot took a 23% proportion of the money Iowans sent through the machines, the Iowa AG’s office said.
Holmes on Monday said the company “has continued to strengthen its protocols and procedures to combat fraud and protect the customers who use its BTMs, including enhanced identity verification [and] customer fraud warnings.”
“Nevertheless, the regulatory environment for BTM operators has shifted significantly,” he added, calling the company’s business model “unsustainable.”
In its most recent earnings report, Bitcoin Depot disclosed an $80.7 million, or 49.2%, loss in revenue in 2026’s first quarter, compared with a year earlier. The company blamed “a decrease in transaction volume driven by a combination of regulatory impacts and enhanced compliance controls.”
The bankruptcy, which will be supervised by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, comes shortly after a leadership change at Bitcoin Depot.
The company’s previous CEO, Scott Buchanan, left in March to “pursue a new opportunity outside” of the firm. At the same time, Bitcoin Depot’s founder, Brandon Mintz, was expected transition to a non-executive member of the board and advise Holmes, “providing strategic continuity and institutional knowledge as the company executes its next phase.”
Holmes, for his part, has served on Bitcoin Depot’s board since August 2025. He capped his career with 16 years at MoneyGram, including eight as CEO, ending in 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In a note seen Tuesday by Banking Dive, Roshan Dharia, a restructuring adviser and CEO of Echo Base Global, called the bankruptcy “a preview of what the broader crypto ATM industry will face in the United States over the next several years.”
“The traditional model depended on high transaction spreads and limited regulatory scrutiny to offset unusually high compliance, cash logistics, fraud remediation, and retail revenue sharing costs,” he said. “That equation is breaking down as states increasingly impose consumer protection standards that compress fees, expand operator liability for scam related activity, and raise expectations around transaction monitoring and reimbursement.”
Bitcoin Depot’s stock price fell 75% between Friday and Monday, to 75 cents per share.
