Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed suit against CoinFlip on May 20, 2026, seeking $1.83 million in civil penalties and a complete operational ban barring the company from doing business in the state. The complaint, filed in the Circuit Court of Jasper County, names GPD Holdings LLC — the legal entity operating CoinFlip's network — and alleges the company "knowingly facilitated fraudulent transactions" while profiting through opaque, excessive fees.
CoinFlip describes itself as the world's largest cryptocurrency ATM network by transaction volume. Hanaway's office counted more than 140 of its kiosks operating at gas stations, liquor stores, and vape shops across Missouri. Missouri is home to roughly 429 Bitcoin ATMs in total, according to the industry directory Coin ATM Radar. The lawsuit asks the court to declare CoinFlip's practices a violation of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, impose civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation over the past five years — capped at $1,826,000 — and award restitution to defrauded consumers.
"Bitcoin and crypto ATMs are the new getaway cars for fraud, whisking away innocent people's money to scammers, never to return," Hanaway said in the announcement from her office. Her office pointed to data from Missouri's own law enforcement bodies: the Missouri Information Analysis Center and the St. Louis Fusion Center identified approximately 350 crypto cases involving Bitcoin ATMs over a two-year period. The Federal Trade Commission, cited in the AG's announcement, reports that fraud losses at crypto ATMs increased nearly tenfold from 2020 to 2023, with reported losses exceeding $65 million in the first half of 2024 alone. Losses by seniors have grown more than twentyfold since 2020, per FTC data.
CoinFlip called the lawsuit "meritless." The company said in a statement to Decrypt that it has spent years lobbying for consumer protection legislation and called on the AG to "prosecute actual criminals instead."
The Missouri action lands within days of a significant market development. Bitcoin Depot Inc., one of the largest U.S. BTM operators, filed voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on May 17-18, 2026 (Case No. 26-90528). The company's entire BTM network was taken offline immediately. Bitcoin Depot cited a dramatically tightened regulatory environment on its restructuring page — "states have imposed increasingly stringent compliance obligations, including new transaction limits, and in some jurisdictions outright restrictions or bans" — alongside mounting litigation costs that rendered its business model unsustainable.
The enforcement pressure extends beyond Missouri. Iowa passed legislation in May 2026 — the Regulating Digital Financial Kiosks act (SF2296), signed by Governor Kim Reynolds — that integrates crypto ATMs into the state's financial regulatory framework and grants Iowa's attorney general authority to seek civil penalties when consumers are harmed. Tennessee has already enacted an outright ban on the machines. The pace of state-level action reflects a sector under acute pressure: operating a BTM network profitably while complying with escalating anti-fraud mandates has proven increasingly difficult to sustain.
Sources: Missouri AG press release (ago.mo.gov, May 20, 2026); CoinFlip lawsuit petition filed in Circuit Court of Jasper County; Bitcoin Depot restructuring docket via Kroll (restructuring.ra.kroll.com/bitcoindepot, Case No. 26-90528); Iowa AG announcement (iowaattorneygeneral.gov, May 6, 2026); CoinFlip rebuttal per Decrypt.