The country that gave the world its first crypto ATMs is now preparing to eliminate them entirely. In April 2013, a Vancouver coffee shop installed what would become crypto’s most recognizable retail footprint, a machine that let ordinary people convert cash into Bitcoin without a bank account, a broker, or much friction at all.

Thirteen years later, Canada has nearly 4,000 of these machines operating across the country, the highest concentration per capita in the world. And the federal government’s Spring Economic Update 2026 has proposed banning them outright.

The proposal didn’t come out of the blue. Canadians reported losing more than $704 million to fraud in 2025, bringing total reported losses since 2022 to over $2.4 billion. The…