Hawaii Bans Cash-to-Crypto Kiosks Starting October 1 to Combat Scams

Hawaii will make it unlawful to run a crypto kiosk that takes cash from customers starting October 1, under a measure Governor Josh Green signed on July 9 as Act 224.

The law adds a section to the state's consumer protection statute making it an unlawful practice for an operator to own, operate or manage a kiosk in Hawaii that "accepts United States currency from a customer in exchange for a digital financial asset." Each prohibited transaction counts as a separate offense.

What it does not do is switch the machines off. The enacted text says "nothing in this section shall prohibit" an operator from running a kiosk that accepts a digital asset in exchange for a different digital asset, or one that accepts a digital asset in exchange for U.S. currency. Customers can still sell crypto at a kiosk and walk away with dollars; they just cannot feed banknotes in to buy it.

That distinction reflects what lawmakers were targeting, with a committee report finding the machines "increasingly being used in scams targeting older adults," in which victims are convinced to transfer cryptocurrency to a wallet address the scammer controls.

Targeting deposits

The same report cites investigations by the attorneys general of Washington, DC and Iowa which found more than 93% of transactions at the kiosks they examined were scam transactions. Since consumers have other ways into digital assets, the committee concluded, banning purchases outright was appropriate.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 92 kiosk-related complaints from Hawaii residents in 2025 and $3.85 million in adjusted losses, close to four times the previous year's figure, and 826 crypto complaints from the state overall, worth about $80 million. Hawaii banking commissioner Dwight Young told Hawaii News Now the machines appeal to criminals because they are anonymous and hard to trace, with approaches typically beginning with an unsolicited call, text or email claiming a bank account has been compromised or a jury summons missed.

Staff working near the kiosks told the state's consumer affairs department that most people using them are kupuna, or elders, who appear panicked or frightened.