Nevadans are losing millions of dollars each year to cryptocurrency scams, and much of the fraud is aided by the hundreds of largely unregulated “bitcoin ATMs,” state lawmakers heard last week.

Crypto kiosks — also called cryptocurrency ATMs or bitcoin ATMs — often look just like bank ATMs and are located in grocery stores, convenience stores and other places where you’d expect to see a traditional ATM. The kiosks allow people to convert cash into cryptocurrency like bitcoin or ethereum.

Cryptocurrency is designed to be anonymous and instantaneous, which makes it an ideal vehicle for scammers, who extort or convince victims to deposit their cash into a crypto kiosk and transfer it to the scammer’s…