U.S. Government Accountability Office Recommends Increased Regulation of Crypto ATMs

The use of encrypted payments to facilitate illegal human and drug trafficking is on the rise, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which provides audit and investigative services to the U.S. Congress, highlighted in a new study that encrypted kiosks (also Known as crypto ATMs, part of the reason for this surge is that these machines are less regulated than crypto exchanges and transactions are harder to track.

The agency suggested that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) should work together to take a tougher approach in regulating crypto ATMs. The report examines the use of cryptocurrencies in global trafficking and how U.S. agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), are responding to the rise in crypto crime .

The GAO also considered the challenges agencies face in combating crypto crime, finding a general lack of information, particularly about crypto ATMs, that hinders law enforcement's ability to identify and deter criminals.