German Regulator Seizes Crypto ATMs

Germany's financial regulator BaFin is seizing bitcoin ATMs run by "Shitcoins Club" months after ordering its operator to cease trading crypto.

Aug 6, 2020, 4:23 PM

Updated Aug 19, 2021, 3:33 AM

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Germany's financial regulator BaFin is seizing bitcoin ATMs run by "Shitcoins Club" months after ordering its Polish operator to cease trading crypto in the country.

On Wednesday, authorities began shuttering "Shitcoins Club" storefronts and seizing its bitcoin ATM machinery, a BaFin official confirmed with CoinDesk, for allegedly operating without banking or proprietary trading licenses.
BaFin ordered Shitcoins' parent company KKT UG to cease all German crypto trading operations in February. But CEO Adam Gramowski flaunted regulators' demands and kept his kiosks running, according to financial news site Handelsblatt. Gramowski did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment.
The action will likely take a substantial portion of Germany's crypto ATMs offline. Shitcoins Club has around 17 bitcoin, litecoin and ether ATMs in the country; Germany as a whole has only 67 operational bitcoin ATMs.

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