Australia has introduced new rules to regulate encryption ATMs in order to protect citizens from technology -associated financial risk. Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (Austrac) has now applied a deposit and withdrawal limit of AUD 5,000 (approximately RS. 2.8 lakh) in Crypto TMAR transactions. The Australian regulator believes this strategy may contain cryptographic blows and fraud, especially those aimed at elderly in the country.
Citing details collected from nine Crypto atm service providers, the government intelligence agency with government support he said that the use of encryption ATMs is dominated by individuals over 50, representing almost 72 % of the total value of the transaction. The agency stressed that elderly individuals are buying cryptocurrency I saw money, with many prey to fall to fraudulent blows and schemes.
“Surprisingly, the 60 -year -old age group has been identified as one of Australia’s most prolific users’ most prolific users,” said Brendan Thomas, CEO of Austrac. “In light of risks and damage, we consider that it is absolutely necessary to ensure that the sector meets minimum standards and reduces the criminal use of the encryption ATMs.”
Between 2019 and 2024, Australia witnessed a remarkable increase in the ATM encryption facilities, rising from only 23 in 2019 to over 1,200 in 2024. Currently, Australia houses an estimate of 1,800 active machines. The data also show that nearly 150,000 transactions are processed through encryption ATMs annually, representing funds around 275 million AUD (approximately RS. 1,529 crore).
“The vast majority of these transactions – about 99 % – are cash deposits for the purchase of cryptocurrencies, especially BitcoinLike this, Tetherand Ethereum“The agency revealed.
Despite the obvious increase in the use of the encryption ATMs, Austrac claims to have observed “worrying” and “disturbing” trends in the compliance status of companies behind these encryption ATMs. The Cryptographic Strength within Austrac recently refused to renew the registration of an encryption ATM operator called Harros Empires after identifying exploration risks related to the company’s operations.
The agency is now taking active measures to spread awareness of the risks associated with the use of Australian encryption ATMs. To do this, educational materials are being placed next to the ATMs that will help readers understand the risks involved, identify fraudulent schemes, and understand the ways of reporting any suspicious activity.
“Cryptography can be a high -risk investment. I would warn anyone who is asked to use one of these machines to send funds to someone to stop and think twice, because when your money is almost impossible for authorities to recover it,” Thomas added.
In March, the Australian Treasury Department proposed A legislative structure for monitoring businesses and operations of encryption, custody and brokerage services. More development in these regulations are expected to occur as soon as the proposed laws receive feedback from stakeholders of the encryption sector.
With regard to cryptographic ATMs, these machines have been repeatedly signaled, as the high risk means bringing exploited to facilitate illicit transactions. Last year, for example, the Blockchain TRM Labs intelligence company had he said that the rate of illicit activities involving encryption ATMs is twice the broader cryptographic ecosystem. TRM Labs released a report at the time, which claimed that illegal transactions worth US $ 160 million (approximately RS. 1,342 crore) were processed by encryption ATM between 2019 and 2024.
Financial authorities in the UK previously cracked down In Cryptographic ATM service providers in 2023, to install machines without cleaning all legal requirements.
(This story was not edited by the NDTV team and is automatically generated from a union feed.)