Analysis – They’re tucked away in dairies, petrol stations and vape shops from Auckland to Invercargill – and, at first glance, they look like ordinary cash machines.

Rather, they’re cryptocurrency ATMs. Increasingly, they have come to represent one of New Zealand’s trickiest anti-money laundering challenges.

Although New Zealand first experimented with cryptocurrency ATMs more than a decade ago, they remained a novelty until 2023, when commercial operators began rolling out permanent networks.

Today, there are around 200 nationwide.

With their expansion has come concerns that the machines can be exploited by scammers and organised crime groups to convert cash into virtual assets that are difficult to trace.

Supporters, meanwhile, argue they…