A San Antonio ordinance requiring fraud warning signs at every cryptocurrency kiosk in the city took effect July 1 after police linked the machines to about $39 million in reported scam losses since January 2024.
San Antonio has 193 known cryptocurrency kiosk locations — more than Dallas, Fort Worth or Austin — and the machines remain largely unregulated in Texas.
A statewide licensing measure, Senate Bill 1705, passed the Senate 27-4 in May 2025 but died in the House, leaving cities to adopt their own safeguards.
The San Antonio Police Department identified 660 reports involving cryptocurrency scams between January 2024 and April 13, 2026, according to data presented to the City Council. Nearly 38% of identified victims were 66 or older, and four cases involved losses exceeding $1 million.
According to SAPD, scammers typically pose as police officers, court officials or utility workers, create a false emergency and keep victims on the phone while directing them to deposit cash into a cryptocurrency kiosk. Once converted to cryptocurrency, the funds are difficult to trace and cannot be reversed.
The ordinance, approved May 7, requires operators to post English- and Spanish-language warning signs in 18-point, color-coded type instructing anyone being pressured to send money to call 911. Businesses that fail to comply face fines ranging from $100 to $500 per violation, with each day constituting a separate offense.
“Sometimes it just comes down to that low-tech notice saying, ‘Stop what you’re doing. You’re about to be scammed,'” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told the council, according to the San Antonio Report. Salazar also offered to print the required signs at no cost through the county jail’s print shop.
AARP supported the ordinance. Americans lost $333 million to cryptocurrency kiosk fraud in 2025, with adults over 60 accounting for most of the losses, Associate State Director Ismael Herrera told the council. He described the warning signs as “a critical pattern interrupter.”
The ordinance also designates cryptocurrency kiosk consumer protections as a city legislative priority for the session that begins in January. City officials said they will seek state requirements similar to those proposed in SB 1705, including on-screen fraud warnings, transaction limits for first-time users and temporary transaction holds that allow banks or family members time to intervene. Bill filing for the 90th Texas Legislature opens Nov. 9.