The Ethical Implications of Cryptocurrency ATMs: A Call for Stronger Regulation and Legislative Action

Journal of Business Ethics · 2025 · Volume 205 · Issue 3

Abstract

This article is a substantially revised version of the previous manuscript titled, “Ethical Considerations in the Cryptocurrency ATM Industry: Unveiling a New Form of Predatory Financial Service” Insightful comments that substantially improved the manuscript were received from the Section Editor, Adrian Keevil, and anonymous referees. I also received important insight into the affected communities from members of the Kansas City Asian and Hispanic Chambers of Commerce. We are grateful to Arif Ahmed, Hilary Allen a Law Professor at American University, Terri Bradford at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Patricia Crawford, Susan Opps, Lee Reiners, Adam Rust at the National Consumer Policy Association, Mark Hays who works at Americans for Financial Reform nonprofit, Phyllis Keys, Brent Never, Edo-Ohonba Osay, Nima Rostamian, Doug Walker, Pedro Zamora, Executive Director of HEDC in Kansas City, participants at the at the 2024 Finance & Accounting Research Symposium at Cambridge University, and the research seminar participants at the Bloch School of Management for helpful discussion. Several activists, legislators, and practitioners also assisted us with this research. Mika Daniel, a reporter from the Guardian, provided data to Dr. Evans and visited several of the crypto ATMs with her. Miguel Londono, Dr. Evans’ research assistant, helped collect data and made graphs. Zahra Ahmadirad, another research assistant, estimated the models in R with the assistance of Leiza Nochebuena-Evans. Jocelyn Evans is appreciative of the financial support from the Bloch School of Management and the Henry W. Bloch Endowment fund as well as several colleagues that read the manuscript. All errors are our own.

Keywords

Cryptocurrency ATM technology, Market ethics, Social contract theory

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