The Washington, DC Attorney General’s office has filed a lawsuit against crypto ATM operator Athena Bitcoin, accusing the company of charging hidden fees on deposits it allegedly knew were linked to scams and of failing to implement adequate anti-fraud safeguards.
Attorney General Brian Schwalb claimed Monday that 93% of deposits made through Athena during its first five months were “direct results of scams.” He also criticized the company’s no-refund policy, saying it blocks victims from recovering both undisclosed fees and scam-related losses.
“Athena knows that its machines are being used primarily by scammers yet chooses to look the other way so that it can continue to pocket sizable hidden transaction fees.”
The lawsuit comes as part of a wider crackdown on crypto ATMs, with the FBI reporting nearly 11,000 fraud complaints tied to the machines in 2024, resulting in more than $246 million in losses. At least 13 states, including Arizona, Colorado, and Michigan, have introduced transaction limits in an effort to curb crypto ATM–related fraud.
Athena has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Athena accused of making six-figure profits from hidden fees
According to the court filing, Attorney General Schwalb’s office claims Athena charged consumers fees as high as 26% per transaction without ever “clearly disclosing them at any point in the process.”
The filing further alleges that Athena misled customers by using the term “Transaction Service Margin” in its Terms of Service instead of explicitly calling it a fee. The company now faces charges of deceptive and unfair trade practices, along with violations of laws designed to protect vulnerable adults and seniors from abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.
The attorney general’s office alleges that Athena “pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed fees” from scam victims—many of them elderly or otherwise vulnerable—during its first five months operating in DC between May and September 2024.
According to the filing, the median victim was 71 years old, with median losses of $8,000 per transaction. One DC resident reportedly lost $98,000 through a scam carried out at an Athena kiosk.
Schwalb’s office further accused the company of maintaining “ineffective oversight,” which it said enabled an “unchecked pipeline for illicit international fraud transactions.”
“Athena has permitted and profited from transactions in which victims are coerced, misled, and manipulated into depositing their life savings into Athena’s machines under fraudulent pretenses.”
How to avoid scams at crypto ATMs
To guard against what Attorney General Schwalb called “predatory conduct,” users should never send funds through a crypto ATM to someone they haven’t met—particularly if the request comes from an unexpected or unsolicited contact.
Scammers often pose as crypto support representatives, warning that a victim’s funds are at risk, or as traders promising unusually high returns with little or no risk.
Anyone receiving such random requests should avoid engaging and instead verify the claim by reaching out to the company or individual directly through official channels.
There are currently 26,850 crypto ATMs across the United States, according to CoinATMRadar. Bitcoin Depot operates the largest share at 27.6%, followed by CoinFlip at 13.6% and Athena at 13%.
Undisclosed fee scandals plague banking industry
The issue of hidden fees, now at the center of the DC attorney general’s case, has long been widespread in the banking sector.
In April, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ordered Discover Bank to return roughly $1.2 billion in overcharged fees to customers. In December 2022, Wells Fargo was hit with $3.7 billion in fines for imposing illegal fees and interest charges on mortgages.
Similarly, Bank of America was ordered in 2023 to pay more than $250 million for levying so-called “junk fees.”
