The bankruptcy of one of the largest operators in the cryptocurrency ATM industry has provided smaller companies with an opportunity to acquire equipment and location resources at low prices.
Bitcoin ATM operator Bitcoin Depot (BTM) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May this year. The company previously disclosed that its first-quarter revenue fell 49% year-over-year, with its results turning from a profit of $12.2 million in the same period last year to a loss of $9.5 million.
According to court documents, slightly more than one-quarter of Bitcoin Depot’s more than 9,200 self-service terminals have been sold, while the transaction price of the related assets was below $1 million.
The winning bidder was Bitcoin Bancorp (BCBC), a publicly traded digital asset infrastructure company previously known as Bullet Blockchain.
Bitcoin Bancorp, headquartered in Las Vegas, successfully won 2,547 cryptocurrency ATMs, with a total transaction amount of $620,750. In Bitcoin Depot’s last full financial report before bankruptcy, the company disclosed that as of the fourth quarter of 2025, the total value of all its assets and equipment exceeded $26 million, of which approximately 98% was self-service terminal equipment.
Compared with Bitcoin Depot, Bitcoin Bancorp is smaller in scale. The company’s shares trade on OTC Markets, with a share price of approximately $0.04 and a current market capitalization of approximately $18.5 million. Meanwhile, when Bitcoin Depot was listed on Nasdaq, its peak market capitalization once approached $400 million.
In addition to ATM equipment, Bitcoin Bancorp also acquired the related floor-space agreements, intellectual property, trademarks, patents, and the BitcoinDepot.com domain name for $110,500.
Bitcoin Bancorp said Wednesday: “Final closing remains subject to customary closing conditions.” The company expects the remaining closing process to be completed in the next quarter.
Cryptocurrency ATM Industry Faces Regulatory Pressure
Cryptocurrency ATMs allow users to purchase digital assets with cash, but such devices are also frequently exploited for fraud activities. Fraudsters typically establish contact with victims online first, then induce victims to transfer funds through cryptocurrency ATMs under reasons such as urgent funding needs.
Data shows that cryptocurrency ATM-related fraud losses totaled $389 million in 2025, an increase of 58% year-over-year.
Regulators are also continuing to strengthen scrutiny of the industry. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) declared cryptocurrency ATMs illegal several years ago, while regulators in countries such as Australia and Canada have also recently adopted stricter regulatory measures.
Most of Bitcoin Depot’s locations are in the United States. In most states, cryptocurrency ATMs remain a legal business, but the company believes that the increasingly tightening regulatory environment has affected operations.
Bitcoin Depot CEO Alex Holmes said that stricter regulatory measures have made the company’s business model “unsustainable.”
Holmes said when the company filed for bankruptcy that states continued to increase compliance requirements, including new transaction limits, while some jurisdictions had even imposed comprehensive restrictions or bans on Bitcoin ATMs (BTM). At the same time, operators are also facing an increasing number of lawsuits and regulatory enforcement actions.
Because cryptocurrency ATMs have physical equipment characteristics, compared with fully digital exchanges or blockchain protocols, they are more likely to become a focus of regulatory enforcement. Equipment located at gas stations and convenience stores also makes them more likely to attract regulatory attention.
Despite continued increases in industry regulatory pressure, coupled with the bankruptcy filing of the well-known company Bitcoin Depot, the outside world once believed that the cryptocurrency ATM industry might enter a period of decline. However, the sale of more than 2,500 locations also shows that there are still a large number of smaller-scale operators in the market.
According to data tracked by Companies History, as of March this year, there were still nearly 39,000 cryptocurrency ATMs operating globally, of which 77.7% were located in the United States. At the same time, the industry is highly concentrated, with the top ten operators accounting for 78.2% of the location share.