The North Dakota Senate has passed a bill that regulates crypto ATMs while re-adding a provision capping daily transactions at $2,000 per user that was originally dropped by the state’s House.
The state’s Senate passed House Bill 1447 in a 45-to-1 vote on March 18. The bill was introduced to the state’s legislative assembly on Jan. 15 and aims to protect residents from scams by introducing a slate of new guidelines for crypto ATMs and their operators.
The latest version of the bill passed by the Senate requires crypto ATM and kiosk operators to be licensed in the state as money transmitters, limits customer withdrawals across their network of ATMs to $2,000 per day, and issues fraud warning notices.
Initially, the bill limited crypto ATM customer transactions to $1,000 a day, but a House committee last month loosened the limits, with a $2,000 a day limit for the first five transactions within 30 days.
Now, the Senate has capped the transaction limits at $2,000. The bill will need to be sent back to the House to vote on the changes before North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong can either veto or sign the bill into law.
The bill would also require operators to use blockchain analytics to monitor for suspicious activity, such as fraud, and report it to the authorities, and to provide quarterly reports on kiosk locations, names and transaction data.
The latest version of House Bill 1447 requires local crypto ATM operators to be licensed in the state as money transmitters, among other requirements. Source: North Dakota Legislative Assembly
During a North Dakota House Industry, Business and Labor committee hearing on Jan. 22, the bill’s primary sponsor, House Representative Steve Swiontek, said that crypto ATMs currently lack protection measures, which has “allowed criminals to exploit them for theft.”
Meanwhile, US Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who formerly chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed similar federal legislation on Feb. 25.
Durbin cited a story from a constituent who fell prey to a scammer claiming the authorities had issued a warrant for their arrest but could pay a fine through a $15,000 deposit at a crypto ATM to avoid jail as motivation for introducing the new law.
Last September, the Federal Trade Commission reported fraud losses at Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs had increased nearly tenfold from 2020 to 2023 and topped $65 million in the first half of 2024, with consumers aged 60 and older three times more likely to fall victim.
Coin ATM Radar data shows that the US still has the most Bitcoin ATMs, with 29,822 machines representing 78% of the global market.
The United States is the world leader in the number of Bitcoin and crypto ATMs. Source: Coin ATM Radar
Canada ranks second, at 9.2% of the market and 3,486 crypto ATMs, while Australia is third with 1,613 crypto ATMs, representing 4.3% of the market.
Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi view Kevin Hassett, US President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council director, as the favorite to replace Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair.
The odds of Hassett filling the seat have spiked to 66% on Polymarket and 74% on Kalshi at the time of writing. Hassett is widely viewed as crypto‑friendly thanks to his past role on Coinbase’s advisory council, a disclosed seven‑figure stake in the exchange and his leadership of the White House digital asset working group.
Founder and CEO of Wyoming-based Custodia Bank, and a prominent advocate for crypto-friendly regulations, Caitlin Long, commented on X:
“If this comes true & Hassett does become Fed chairman, anti-#crypto people at the Fed who still hold positions of power will finally be out (well, most of them anyway). BIG changes will be coming to the Fed.”
Hassett is a long-time Republican policy economist who returned to Washington as Trump’s top economic adviser and has now emerged as the market-implied frontrunner to lead the Fed.
His financial disclosure reveals at least a seven‑figure Coinbase stake and compensation for serving on the exchange’s Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council, placing him unusually close to the crypto industry for a potential Fed chair.
Still, crypto has been burned before by reading too much into “crypto‑literate” resumes. Gary Gensler arrived at the Securities and Exchange Commission with MIT blockchain courses under his belt, but went on to preside over a wave of high‑profile enforcement actions, some of which critics branded as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”
A Hassett-led Fed might be more open to experimentation and less reflexively hostile to bank‑crypto activity. Still, the institution’s mandate on financial stability means markets should not assume a one‑way bet on deregulation.
The Hassett odds have jumped just as the Fed’s own approach to bank supervision has received pushback from veterans like Fed Governor Michael Barr, who earned his reputation as one of Operation Chokepoint 2.0’s key architects.
According to Caitlin Long, while he Barr “was Vice Chairman of Supervision & Regulation he did Warren’s bidding,” and he “has made it clear he will oppose changes made by Trump & his appointees.”
On Nov. 18, the Fed released new Supervisory Operating Principles that shift examiners toward a “risk‑first” framework, directing staff to focus on material safety‑and‑soundness risks rather than procedural or documentation issues.
In a speech the same day, Barr warned that narrowing oversight, weakening ratings frameworks and making it harder to issue enforcement actions or matters requiring attention could leave supervisors slower to act on emerging risks, arguing that gutting those tools may repeat pre‑crisis mistakes.
Days later, in Consumer Affairs Letter 25‑1, the Fed clarified that the new Supervisory Operating Principles do not apply to its Consumer Affairs supervision program (an area under Barr’s committee as a governor).
If prediction markets are right and a crypto‑friendly Hassett inherits this landscape, his Fed would not be writing on a blank slate but stepping into an institution already mid‑pivot on how hard (and where) it leans on banks.
HashKey Holdings, the parent company of one of Hong Kong’s biggest licensed crypto exchanges, moved a step closer to a public listing, according to new filings from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX).
On Monday, the HKEX published a 633-page post-hearing information pack for HashKey Holdings. The document was published at the request of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and the local financial regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
A post-hearing information pack is only published after HKEX’s listing committee formally clears an applicant at the listing hearing. In other words, without explicitly stating it, this document indicates that HashKey has moved closer to listing on the exchange and is progressing toward its initial public offering (IPO).
At the same time, the document stressed that the deal is not yet finalized. “The listing application referred to in this document has not yet been approved; the HKEX and the SFC may accept, return, or reject the public offering and/or listing application.”
This is standard HKEX disclaimer language and does not contradict HashKey’s approval. Instead, it refers to the listing being dependent on completing the offering documents.
Hong Kong Exchange trade lobby in 2007. Source: Wikimedia
HashKey’s IPO is likely to attract significant attention
The news follows early October reports that HashKey was aiming for an IPO and a listing in Hong Kong this year. At the time, the report was largely based on rumors, citing anonymous sources with purported knowledge of the matter.
HashKey is Hong Kong’s top crypto exchange with a 24-hour volume of nearly $108 million at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data. The information pack also listed the world’s top bank, JPMorgan, and local financial institutions Guotai Junan International and Haitong International as joint sponsors for the listing.
Interest in the offering is likely high, considering that in mid-February, China-based Gaorong Ventures reportedly invested $30 million in HashKey, granting it unicorn status. The pre-money valuation of the investment was purportedly almost $1.5 billion, but reports cited unidentified sources that could not be independently verified.
This was followed by reports in late October that Chinese technology giants, including Ant Group and JD.com, had reportedly suspended plans to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong due to regulatory concerns. On Saturday, the People’s Bank of China — mainland China’s central bank — said after a meeting with 12 other agencies that “virtual currency speculation has resurfaced,” reiterating that “virtual currency-related business activities constitute illegal financial activities,” in line with its 2021 ban on crypto trading and mining.
Sony Bank, the online lending subsidiary of Sony Financial Group, is reportedly preparing to launch a stablecoin that will enable payments across the Sony ecosystem in the US.
Sony is planning to issue a US dollar-pegged stablecoin in 2026 and expects it to be used for purchases of PlayStation games, subscriptions and anime content, Nikkei reported on Monday.
Targeting US customers — who make up roughly 30% of Sony Group’s external sales — the stablecoin is expected to work alongside existing payment options such as credit cards, helping reduce fees paid to card networks, the report said.
Sony Bank applied in October for a banking license in the US to establish a stablecoin-focused subsidiary and has partnered with the US stablecoin issuer Bastion. Sony’s venture arm also joined Bastion’s $14.6 million raise, led by Coinbase Ventures.
Sony Bank has been actively venturing into Web3
Sony Bank’s stablecoin push in the US comes amid the company’s active venture into Web3, with the bank establishing a dedicated Web3 subsidiary in June.
“Digital assets utilizing blockchain technology are incorporated into a diverse range of services and business models,” Sony Bank said in a statement in May.
“Financial services, such as wallets, which store NFT (non-fungible tokens) and cryptocurrency assets, and crypto exchange providers are becoming increasingly important,” it added.
Sony Bank established a Web3 subsidiary with an initial capital of 300 million yen ($1.9 million) in June 2025. Source: Sony Bank
The Web3 unit, later named BlockBloom, aims to build an ecosystem that blends fans, artists, NFTs, digital and physical experiences, and both fiat and digital currencies.
Sony Bank’s stablecoin initiative follows the recent spin-off of its parent, Sony Financial Group, which was separated from Sony Group and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September.
The move was intended to decouple the financial arm’s balance sheet and operations from the broader Sony conglomerate, allowing each to sharpen its strategic focus.
Cointelegraph reached out to Sony Bank for comment regarding its potential US stablecoin launch, but had not received a response by the time of publication.