Customer Experience

GAO: Crypto ATMs enable drug, human trafficking

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January 12, 2022

The Government Accounting Office has warned that virtual currency (cryptocurrency) ATMs are being used to facilitate human and drug trafficking and has proposed improved federal efforts to track virtual currency kiosks, according to a newly released report.

The number of suspicious activity reports filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a federal entity, involving drug trafficking and virtual currency rose fivefold from 252 to about 1,432 from 2017 to 2020.

GAO also reported government agencies may lack complete data when reporting on the use of virtual currency in human and drug trafficking. The agency made recommendations to agencies to improve their data collection practices.

FinCEN has proposed rules to strengthen customer identification and collection requirements, including verification and collection of customer information at lower thresholds and improved reporting of certain virtual currency transactions. FinCEN has also issued guidance to address drug and human trafficking.

In 2020, there were 164 registered kiosk virtual currency operators in the U.S. and 133 known unregistered kiosk virtual currency operators in the U.S., according to the report.