Buying at a crypto ATM
Cash in, coins to your wallet, no bank involved. Also the most expensive route there is, and the one fraudsters ask their victims to use.
A crypto ATM does one simple thing: it takes banknotes and sends coins to a wallet address you show it. No bank, no transfer, no waiting for settlement. For anyone whose bank refuses to deal with exchanges, that is genuinely useful.
It is also the most expensive way to buy crypto by a wide margin, and the machine of choice for a category of fraud that costs people their savings. Both of those need saying in the same breath as the convenience.
How it works
- You show the machine a wallet addressUsually as a QR code from your own wallet app. Some machines will print a paper wallet instead — see below.
- You verify as much as the local rules requireA phone number for small amounts in some countries, an identity document above a threshold, full verification in others.
- You feed in banknotesThe screen shows a running total in local currency.
- The machine broadcasts a transactionThe coins arrive when the network confirms it, which is minutes for most networks and can be longer when they are busy.
What it costs, and where the cost hides
Two charges, and the smaller one is the one on the screen.
The operator fee is displayed, often between five and fifteen percent depending on the country and the machine.
The exchange rate is the other half. The machine quotes its own price for the coin, and that price is not the market price. Comparing the rate on the screen against any exchange, on your phone, while standing there, is the only way to see the total — and it is frequently larger than the fee that was disclosed.
Price the whole thing before you feed in the first note
Take the amount of coin the machine offers for your cash, and look up what the same amount costs on any exchange. The difference is the real price of the convenience, and it is a single number rather than three.
Verification, and why it varies so much
There is no single global rule here. Some countries require operators to register and to verify every customer; some set a threshold below which a phone number is enough; some have no registered operators at all, which means any machine standing there is running outside the rules rather than under them.
The country tables below record what each place actually requires, with the regulator's own document as the source on each country page. This is the part of the site to check before travelling with a plan.
The thing that has to be said
If somebody told you to come here, you are being defrauded
Nobody from a bank, a police force, a tax office, a utility or a computer support desk will ever ask you to put cash into a crypto machine. Not to "protect" your money, not to pay a fine, not to fix an account. The instruction itself is the proof. Stop, keep the cash, and read fake support and impersonation.
This is not a hypothetical. The combination of cash, irreversibility and a machine that walks a frightened person through the steps is precisely why these machines feature in impersonation fraud everywhere they exist, and it is why several regulators have moved against them.
What else goes wrong
The wrong address. The machine sends where it is told. An address scanned from a screenshot somebody sent you belongs to somebody else, permanently.
The wrong network. Machines that offer several coins can offer the same asset on more than one network. Sending to an address of the wrong kind is the classic way to lose a purchase — what happens if you send to the wrong network covers what is and is not recoverable.
Paper wallets. Some machines will print a key on a receipt if you have no wallet. That receipt is the money, it is thermal paper that fades, and the machine that printed it also knew the key. Arrive with a wallet.
No refunds. There is no reversal, no dispute and often no operator to reach. The transaction is broadcast within seconds and belongs to the network after that.
Where they work
Availability here has less to do with demand than with regulation: the same machine is unremarkable in one country, licensed in the next and prohibited in the third.
| Country | Available | Verification | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | Not available | Not checked | — | — |
| South Africa | Limited | Email only | 6–12% | Minutes |
| India | Not available | Not checked | — | — |
| Indonesia | Not available | Not checked | — | — |
| Philippines | Limited | Email only | 7–15% | Minutes |
| Vietnam | Not available | Not checked | — | — |
| Germany | Limited | Email only | 7–15% | Minutes |
| Poland | Limited | Email only | 6–12% | Minutes |
| Switzerland | Available | Email only | 5–12% | Minutes |
| Turkey | Limited | Email only | 6–12% | Minutes |
| United Kingdom | Not available | Not checked | — | — |
| Canada | Available | ID document | 8–20% | Minutes |
| United States | Available | ID document | 8–20% | Minutes |
| Argentina | Limited | Email only | 6–12% | Minutes |
| Brazil | Limited | Email only | 6–12% | Minutes |
Checked in 15 countries: works without caveats in 3, unavailable in 5. Each country page carries its own sources and the date it was last checked. All countries →
Read next
Hot, cold and hardware covers getting a wallet before you stand in front of a machine, and networks and addresses explains why the address format matters more than the coin's name.
The other four routes
Which of them exists where you live is on your country page.