Connect with us

Published

on

North Dakota Senate passes crypto ATM bill limiting daily transactions to K

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.

North Dakota Senate passes crypto ATM bill limiting daily transactions to $2K

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.”

Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen had signed similar legislation into law on March 13, the Controllable Electronic Record Fraud Prevention Act, which is designed to help combat fraud.

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. 

Related: ‘Victim-blaming’ Americans can deter crypto scams reporting — Regulator

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.

North Dakota Senate passes crypto ATM bill limiting daily transactions to $2K

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. 

Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025

Continue Reading

Politics

Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Published

on

By

Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

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.”

Source: Polymarket Money

Related: Crypto-friendly Trump adviser Hassett top pick for Fed chair: Report

Kevin Hassett’s crypto credentials

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.​

Related: Caitlin Long’s crypto bank loses appeal over Fed master account

Supervision pushback inside the Fed

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.