The attorney general’s office in Washington, D.C., has taken legal action against Athena Bitcoin, a company that runs crypto ATMs, claiming it charged hidden fees and allowed scams to happen through its machines.
Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced the lawsuit on Monday, saying that in the company’s first five months of business in D.C., an overwhelming 93 percent of deposits were linked to scams. He said Athena’s strict no-refund policy stopped victims from getting their money back, including both the losses from scams and the undisclosed fees.
“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,” Schwalb said in a statement.
The lawsuit explained that Athena charged customers fees as high as 26 percent per transaction, but never made these charges clear. Instead, the company used the phrase “Transaction Service Margin” in its Terms of Service, avoiding the word “fee” entirely.
Officials said this trick misled customers who thought they were paying fair rates. The charges brought against Athena include unfair and deceptive trade practices, as well as violations of laws that are meant to protect older and vulnerable adults from being financially exploited.
Between May and September 2024, when Athena started its operations in Washington, the attorney general’s office said the company made hundreds of thousands of dollars from hidden fees. Many of the victims were elderly people.
The filing stated the median age of victims was 71, and the typical loss per transaction was around $8,000. In one case, a Washington resident lost $98,000 after being pressured into making repeated deposits at one of Athena’s kiosks. The attorney general’s office said Athena’s weak oversight created what it described as an “unchecked pipeline for illicit international fraud transactions.”
Athena has not yet replied to requests for comment. Meanwhile, the lawsuit comes at a time when scams involving crypto ATMs are under growing national attention. According to the FBI, there were nearly 11,000 complaints related to crypto ATM fraud in 2024, with losses totaling over $246 million.
Thirteen states, including Arizona, Colorado, and Michigan, have already placed limits on transaction amounts at crypto ATMs to reduce the damage caused by scams. According to CoinATMRader, there are about 26,850 crypto ATMs in the United States. Bitcoin Depot runs the largest share, with 27.6 percent, followed by CoinFlip at 13.6 percent, and Athena at 13 percent.
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