Crypto ATMs in Miami: who is still running, and what it costs

What happened in May 2026, and why it matters to you

On 18 May 2026, Bitcoin Depot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and deactivated its entire network of more than 9,000 machines. This was not a slow wind down. The fleet went dark, and customers with transactions in progress or balances tied to associated accounts found themselves unable to reach that money, which remains restricted under bankruptcy rules.

The numbers behind the collapse were not subtle. First-quarter 2026 revenue was down 49.2% year on year, producing a $9.5 million net loss against $12.2 million of net income in the same quarter a year earlier. The share price fell roughly 79% over six months. In March 2026 the company replaced its chief executive after Connecticut suspended its money transmission licence, and in April it disclosed that attackers had breached its systems and taken $3.7 million from company crypto wallets.

The company's own diagnosis was regulatory. It pointed at the growing patchwork of state transaction limits and singled out California's $1,000 daily cap. That framing is convenient but not entirely wrong: the kiosk business model depends on high fees and low friction, and every state that legislates disclosure or caps takes a slice out of both.

There is a second, less obvious consequence. Athena Bitcoin — the largest remaining operator in Miami, with around 49 machines previously listed here and roughly 4,100 across five countries — is itself under legal pressure. In late 2025 the District of Columbia's attorney general sued the company, alleging that 93% of deposits into its machines were linked to scams and that it charged fees of up to 26% without properly disclosing them. Athena has said it strongly disagrees and will defend itself. The case is unresolved, but it tells you what the regulatory direction of travel is.

Who still operates crypto ATMs in Miami

Miami has been served by roughly 25 different operators across about 229 listed machines. Below are the names you will actually encounter, with what we know about each. Machine counts are indicative and predate the May 2026 shutdown where noted.

What a Miami crypto ATM really charges

Here is the thing that catches people. A kiosk screen showing “8% commission” is not telling you what the transaction costs. Operators make money in two places: the stated commission, and the exchange rate they quote you, which is generally worse than the market. The second one is called the spread, it is usually the larger of the two, and it is where most of the margin lives.

That is precisely the allegation at the centre of the DC case against Athena: charges reaching 26%, mostly buried inside the rate rather than shown as a fee. Whatever the outcome, the mechanism is standard across the industry, which is why independent estimates of all-in kiosk cost in 2026 cluster in the 10% to 25% range rather than the single digits most machines advertise.

KYC tiers today, and the caps arriving in January 2027

Kiosk verification has always worked in tiers. Give a phone number and you get a low ceiling. Add a government-issued ID and the ceiling rises — the common threshold has been around $900, above which identification is mandatory. Some operators have gone further and now require ID on every transaction regardless of amount, which reflects both federal pressure and the fraud statistics.

From 1 January 2027, that discretion largely disappears in Florida. HB 505 was signed on 26 June 2026 and imposes a specific structure on virtual currency kiosks operating in the state.

That refund provision changes the economics of the industry rather than just the paperwork. It makes scam losses an operator problem rather than a victim problem, at least on first transactions, which gives operators a direct financial incentive to intervene rather than to process. It was driven by hard numbers: 1,213 Florida kiosk complaints and roughly $32.8 million in Florida kiosk losses in 2025.

Our practical advice, if you are reading this before 2027: if you can defer a kiosk transaction until the new rules are in force, do. The disclosure and refund protections are meaningfully better than what exists today. Full detail is in Florida crypto regulation explained.

Where the machines actually are

Kiosks follow cash. In Miami that means convenience stores, gas stations, smoke shops, phone-repair shops, small supermarkets and money-transfer windows — the businesses that already handle notes all day and have room for a terminal by the door. You will not find them in Brickell office lobbies, because nobody in a Brickell office lobby is buying bitcoin with a twenty.

The thickest historical concentration has been Downtown and along Flagler Street, followed by Little Havana along SW 8th Street, where the cash-to-crypto market overlaps almost exactly with the remittance market. Wynwood and Edgewater have scattered machines in smoke shops and corner stores. Miami Beach is well covered but priced for visitors — we deal with the barrier island separately in crypto ATMs on Miami Beach.

The genuine market gap is the south and west of the county. Coral Gables, Kendall, Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay are thin on machines relative to both population and income, largely because residents there use exchanges and cards instead. If you need physical cash conversion in South Dade, a grocery-store kiosk is usually your closest realistic option. Our neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood guide maps all of this properly.

If you are going to use one anyway

There are legitimate reasons to stand in front of a kiosk, and if you have one, these are the things that separate a merely expensive transaction from a disastrous one.

Bring your own wallet address. Many machines will happily generate a custodial wallet for you, and that is one more account holding your coins for no good reason. Have a wallet installed and its receive QR code ready before you leave the house, and never let anyone else provide the address you scan — that is the single most common mechanic in kiosk fraud.

Read the confirmation screen, not the advertising. Every machine must show you the quantity of crypto you will receive before you confirm. Divide the dollars you are inserting by that quantity and compare it against the market price on your phone. If the gap is more than about 8%, walk away — there is another machine, and there is certainly a cheaper route.

Take the receipt, and photograph the screen. Under HB 505 the printed receipt becomes a required option, and it is the evidence that supports a refund claim within the 60-day window. Photograph the machine, its serial or ID label and the host business too. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a claim and a story.

The cheaper alternatives, ranked

Almost everyone who arrives at a kiosk has a better option available and does not know it. In rough order of how much money they save you:

A licensed exchange funded by bank transfer is the cheapest route available to a Miami resident, typically costing a fraction of a percent. It requires a bank account and one to three days of patience. If you are holding cash, deposit it at a branch first — the two-day delay costs you nothing and saves you a fifth of your money.

A Coinme retail counter or bitcoin-enabled Coinstar kiosk is the right answer for cash buyers. Coinme operates across 48 states with more than 14,000 retail checkout counters and over 6,000 Coinstar bitcoin kiosks, and launched 300+ bitcoin-enabled Coinstar machines in Florida grocery stores. Flat service fee, real receipt, actual cashier. Covered in full in buy crypto with cash in Miami.

A MoneyGram cash-in through the Coinme partnership works at around 11,500 US locations with fees cited between $2.75 and $5.75. Useful if your nearest grocery option is inconvenient but a remittance window is not.

An OTC desk is the answer above roughly $50,000, where kiosk limits make the question moot anyway. See Miami OTC desks.

Miami crypto ATMs: common questions