California Orders CoinFlip to Pay More Than $4.8 Million to Scam Victims

California ordered CoinFlip to pay more than $4.8 million to scam victims, putting the crypto ATM operator’s customer checks and transaction monitoring under scrutiny across a state where it runs roughly 500 kiosks.

The Wednesday, Nov. 4, order from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) also requires CoinFlip to pay the state more than $350,000 over excessive fees and stop the practices identified by regulators. DFPI found that CoinFlip’s customer screening and suspicious-activity controls had fallen short since 2021.

The regulator also found transactions above California’s $1,000 daily limit per customer, missing disclosures before transactions and receipts without required information. DFPI Commissioner KC Mohseni said “protecting consumers is not optional.”

Those safeguards apply at several points in a kiosk transaction, from checking a customer’s identity to explaining a purchase before payment. Scammers commonly direct victims to withdraw cash and use a kiosk to send funds to a wallet they control. Crypto transfers made through the machines cannot be reversed.

FBI complaints involving cryptocurrency kiosks rose in 2025. The agency received 13,460 complaints that year, with adjusted losses of $388,981,267. Complaints increased 23% and adjusted losses rose 58% from 2024. Some complaints involved other types of transactions, so the full loss figure cannot be attributed to kiosk use alone.

States have taken different approaches to the risks. Hawaii’s cash-to-crypto ATM ban took effect Oct. 1. Washington regulators separately filed charges against CoinFlip in September, seeking to revoke its license, obtain consumer refunds and impose a $1,029,600 fine. CoinFlip can contest those charges.

In October, Coinme agreed to end its kiosk operations by Jan. 1, 2027, under a multistate settlement.