Minister Tony Burke said the government won’t be pushing for an outright ban on crypto ATMs, but he wants to provide AUSTRAC with the power to implement one.
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Australia’s national financial intelligence agency would have the power to restrict or ban crypto ATMs under draft legislation from the country’s minister for cybersecurity and home affairs, Tony Burke.
Burke during a speech at the National Press Club on Thursday that the draft legislation would give the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) the ability to restrict or prohibit “high-risk products,” which include .
While regular bank-run ATMs are also used for scams and illegal activities, Burke said that in the case of crypto ATMs, authorities are having limited success in policing and tracking down illicit funds and are concerned they present a money-laundering risk.
“I’m not pretending for a minute that everybody who goes in and uses a crypto ATM is a problem, but proportionately what’s happening is a significant problem in an area which is much harder for us to trace.”
Australia was initially a slow market for crypto ATMs, but adoption after private companies began piling into the market, and the country is now for crypto ATMs, 2,008, up from 67 in August 2022.
Crypto ATM provider argues there are already rules in place
More than half the crypto ATMs in Australia are by three providers: Localcoin, with 868 in its stable; Coinflip, with 682 ATMs; and Bitcoin Depot, with 267.
In a statement to Cointelegraph, a Coinflip spokesperson said that crypto ATMs are already subject to strict rules and verification, which includes submitting valid government-issued identification before conducting any transaction.
AUSTRAC has previously led several crackdowns on crypto ATMs, and in June, it and transaction limits.
Machines also have other safety measures
Coinflip said the machines have cameras, pre-transaction monitoring via and real-time scam warnings to help curb bad actors.
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“Crypto ATMs are an important bridge between the physical and digital world, taking cryptocurrency out of the cloud and into the physical world using a familiar experience,” the spokesperson said.
“As traditional ATMs continue to decline across Australia, interest in cryptocurrency surges, and banks maintain a restrictive posture toward digital assets, the environment is primed for CATMs to thrive.”
New powers will be optional
Burke said the government won’t be pushing for an outright ban on the machines or recommending a course of action for AUSTRAC because it might result in a “legal challenge.”
Still, he intends to give “them the power to be able to restrict or ban those devices,” so the agency has the tools to police new technology as it decides.
“I’m not sure what the next thing is going to be, and there will be times when AUSTRAC may decide on something that doesn’t quite fit that definition, but is similar to do they want to ban or do they want to regulate?” Burke said.
“How do they want to deal with this? Are there ways of actually avoiding the problem? That’s why they’ll be able to have this power with respect to high-risk products,” he added.
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