Key Highlights

  • The 2026 Spring Economic Update proposes banning crypto ATMs across Canada, describing them as a "primary method for scammers to defraud victims and for criminals to place their cash proceeds of crime."
  • Canada hosts nearly 4,000 crypto ATMs, the highest per-capita concentration in the world outside the United States, accounting for 10.1% of all global machines.
  • Canadians will still be able to purchase crypto through registered money service businesses and other regulated channels once the ban is enacted.

Canada's federal government has moved to ban crypto ATMs entirely, with the proposal appearing in the Spring Economic Update 2026 published on April 28. The document calls the machines "a primary method for scammers to defraud victims and for criminals to place their cash proceeds of crime", among the most direct language any G7 government has used to frame crypto ATMs as a systemic financial crime risk.

The stakes are significant. Canada hosts nearly 4,000 crypto ATMs, representing 10.1% of all machines worldwide, second only to the United States. The machines have become a common endpoint in phone and impersonation scams, where victims are directed to a nearby kiosk and instructed to deposit cash directly into a scammer's wallet address.

Officials were careful to distinguish the ATM ban from a broader crypto crackdown. Canadians will still be able to buy digital assets through registered money service businesses and other regulated on-ramps, which require identity verification and carry stricter anti-money-laundering obligations than crypto ATM operators currently face.

The Spring Economic Update also proposed tighter rules for money service businesses more broadly, including enhanced criminal record checks for operators, stricter registration requirements, and expanded ministerial powers to issue directives when financial crime risks are identified.

No implementation date or transition period has been published. The proposal requires parliamentary action before it takes effect, and the government has not released final penalty rules for operators who continue to run machines after any ban takes effect.