Framingham's City Council has unanimously voted to ban cryptocurrency ATMs from operating anywhere in the city, following reports that residents have lost a combined $397,000 to scams tied to the machines since 2023. The vote makes Framingham the latest Massachusetts community to move against the kiosks, which regulators and consumer advocates say have become a favored tool for fraudsters nationwide.
The council's unanimous decision was reported by the MetroWest Daily News, which detailed how residents have lost a reported $397,000 to cryptocurrency ATM scams since 2023. The same report, citing a search-result snippet, attributed figures on roughly 10 Framingham scam cases since 2023 to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, though that specific attribution carries lower confidence than the headline loss total.
A Statewide Pattern of Losses
Framingham's losses fit into a much larger and growing problem across Massachusetts. There were 296 complaints about scams involving crypto kiosks in the state in 2025, with $6,834,561 in reported losses, according to FBI data cited by WBUR. Nationally, consumers reported losing more than $388 million through cryptocurrency kiosks in 2025, according to WBUR. The federal Internet Crime Complaint Center has separately said it received more than 13,400 complaints involving cryptocurrency kiosks in 2025, with losses topping $388 million, though that figure comes with lower confidence in the underlying dossier.
The Federal Trade Commission has also flagged the trend, noting that reported fraud losses at bitcoin ATMs increased nearly tenfold from 2020 to 2023 and topped $65 million in just the first half of 2024, per a Consumer Sentinel Network data snippet.
Framingham Joins a Growing List of Massachusetts Bans
A September 10, 2026, report from MassLive said 22 communities in Massachusetts had enacted bans on the kiosks by that date.
In Easthampton, the City Council voted unanimously to enact an ordinance banning cryptocurrency ATM machines throughout the municipality, according to WWLP. That ordinance requires all cryptocurrency ATMs to be removed within 30 days after its effective date, with violators after the deadline subject to a fine of $300 per day per device.
Agawam took a similar first step on September 8, 2026, when its City Council voted 11-0 to endorse an ordinance proposed by Mayor Christopher C. Johnson outlawing the machines, MassLive reported. If confirmed at a future meeting, businesses hosting cryptocurrency ATMs in Agawam would have 60 days to remove them or face fines of $300 per day, per machine. Newton's Programs and Services Committee has also discussed implementing a complete ban on cryptocurrency ATMs in that city, according to The Heights.
Real Victims Behind the Statistics
The push for bans traces back to individual cases like that of a Haverhill woman undergoing cancer treatment, who deposited $5,500 into a kiosk, though the money was recovered.
For now, Framingham's ban stands as a local response to a problem that regulators describe as expanding, both in the number of Massachusetts towns taking action and in the dollar figures being reported by victims.
