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LAYTON — For as long as people have earned money legitimately, bad actors have tried to wrestle that money out of the hands of the unsuspecting using the means of the day.
The emergence of cryptocurrency has seen this trend continue into a new age, and one town is trying to push back.
In March, the Layton City Police Department sent out a press release announcing the Layton City Council’s decision to ban cryptocurrency ATMs in the city limits.
“On March 19, 2026, the City Council adopted Ordinance 26-07, prohibiting the operation of virtual currency kiosks — commonly known as cryptocurrency ATMs or Bitcoin Teller Machines (BTMs) — within city limits,” the release said.
Lt. Clint Bobrowski of the Layton City Police Department told the Standard-Examiner that, over a four-year span, over $2 million of documented financial loss had occurred at these machines alone due to scamming attempts.
“It’s a really large amount, considering our community,” he said. “We’re only talking about the ones that were reported to us. Depending on which study you want to believe, we’re definitely not getting the majority of the times this has occurred reported to us. When you start looking at it in terms of financial loss and the impact that it has on the citizens in our community, it’s rather substantial.”
As a result of these mounting losses, the Layton Police Department started an education campaign to warn people about scams involving crypto kiosks. This campaign went as far as affixing large, prominent signage to each of the city’s 18 kiosks warning people of the signs that they’re being scammed.
Among other information, the warning signs presented the following scenarios:
- “Did you receive a notification/phone call, email, or text message from a law enforcement agency, telling you to pay bail, a fine, or that you missed jury duty?
- Law Enforcement will NOT request money over the phone or via cryptocurrency.
- This is a SCAM!
- Were you encouraged to send cryptocurrency to repair a virus on your computer?
- Did you receive a notification/phone call, email, or text message from your bank/credit union, directing you to withdraw and send money via cryptocurrency at an ATM?
- Are you in a relationship with someone online who you’ve never met and they are asking you to send them cryptocurrency?
- Is this cryptocurrency transaction questionable in any other way that makes you feel uncomfortable?
- NEVER SEND MONEY/CYRPTOCURRENCY TO SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW!”
The signs also prompted anybody caught in one of these scenarios to call local law enforcement.
Unfortunately, Bobrowski said cases continued to mount despite posts on social media and the signage. In one instance, which the Layton City Police Department tracked, a person approached a kiosk in Layton and sent nearly $15,000 with the sign clearly visible to their left.
“Through our investigations, talking with business owners, their employees or the employees themselves are intercepting people as they’re coming in on the phone and they’re telling them, ‘Hey, this is a scam. This is a scam,’” he said. “The suspects are so believable that the victims aren’t listening to them.”
He said as a result, the department felt it was necessary to take more extreme measures.
“We got to a point, within the community, that we really felt we needed to remove these machines because of the victimization that was taking place,” he said. “Our investigators pitched it to the City Council, the council and the mayor were very supportive of trying to protect our residents.”
Bobrowski said that Layton is the first city, to his knowledge, that has banned cryptocurrency kiosks. But it may not be the last.
“Since we put out the information on the ban, we’ve had two other cities reach out to us and inquire about our process and the information we used,” he said.
He said that, while the ban applies to cryptocurrency kiosks within city limits, he said there is one thing this ban does not do.
“This is not a ban on cryptocurrency at all,” he said. “Cryptocurrency is still allowed in the city. People can still participate in that. There’s many other ways that individuals can participate in the use of and transferring cryptocurrency.”
Bobrowski added that this also isn’t the department or the city making a statement for or against cryptocurrency.
“People have taken a very small portion of the cryptocurrency world — these physical kiosks — and are taking advantage of of that and they’re victimizing people with this. We’re just removing that primary tool that suspects are using to victimize citizens within cryptocurrency asa whole.”
He said the department explored the possibilities, but he’s unaware of any additional safeguards that could be added to the machines to prompt a lifting of the ban in the near future.
“The unfortunate nature of cryptocurrency and these machines is we can’t come up with any sort of changes in the future that would make us feel comfortable to remove the ban,” he said. “It was looked at, it was data-driven and (we explored) ways we could improve the system, but we’re just not seeing that ability. So that’s why we moved forward with the ban.”
According to the press release, existing machines must be removed within 60 days and violations are subject to misdemeanor charges.
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