AUSTRAC granted new powers to tighten crypto ATM oversight in Australia

Australia will grant its financial intelligence agency, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, new powers to crack down on the third-largest crypto ATM market in the world.

Summary

• Australia is drafting new regulations to give AUSTRAC authority over high-risk products, including crypto ATMs.
• Home Minister Tony Burke warned that most top users of crypto ATMs are tied to illicit operations.
• AUSTRAC has already imposed a 5,000 Australian dollar cash limit and stricter compliance rules for crypto ATM operators.

New regulations are being drafted that would grant AUSTRAC the power to keep a check on “high-risk products” like Crypto ATMs, which, according to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, have been linked to money laundering, scams, fraud, illicit drug trade, and even child exploitation.

Burke was addressing the National Press Club in Canberra when he highlighted that the number of crypto ATMs in Australia has grown at an alarming rate, and the country currently houses the highest number of crypto kiosks in the region, and the third highest in the world.

“Six years ago, Australia had 23 of them. Three years ago, Australia had 200 of them. Now, we have 2,000 of them,” Burke was quoted as saying.

Australia’s rapidly growing crypto ATM market has positioned it as a global hotspot for cash-to-crypto activity, and the concerns are not unfounded, considering that local authorities have time and again found these machines being used as a tool for fraud, scams, and illicit financial transfers.

Just a few months ago, local authorities reported that 15 victims, many of whom were senior citizens from Tasmania, had lost an estimated $2.5 million to scams involving crypto ATMs. 

Although a cryptocurrency ATM on its own is not inherently malicious, scammers often redirect victims to these machines as part of elaborate fraud schemes, especially since purchasing crypto with fiat makes the financial trail difficult to trace due to the inherent anonymity of blockchain transactions. 

Burke also echoed this concern during his appearance and cited AUSTRAC’s findings that a majority of transactions flowing through these machines were linked to illicit activity.

“When they looked at the top users, the top users who are putting the most money into crypto ATMs, 85 per cent of the money going through for the top users involved scams or money mules,” Burke said.

However, Burke did not clarify whether AUSTRAC would move to ban crypto ATMs entirely, as some other jurisdictions around the world have done.

Crypto ATMs face restrictions in Australia

AUSTRAC has had the crypto ATM sector in its crosshairs for a long time and made its first move in March 2025, when it issued a warning to ATM operators regarding non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws.

Over the next few months, the agency stepped up enforcement, carried out targeted investigations, and later introduced a cap of 5,000 Australian dollars on cash transactions. Operators are also required to conduct a stricter customer due diligence process and display scam warning notices at ATM locations.

“These conditions are designed to help protect individuals from scams and businesses from criminal exploitation,” AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said at the time.