Kiosk research · 10 operators
Los Angeles has one of the densest crypto kiosk networks in America — and the strictest rules governing it. California caps what any machine can charge you and how much you can transact in a day. Here is every major operator compared on fees, assets, two-way support and ID tiers, plus what the same purchase would cost you elsewhere.
Daily cap per person
$1,000
Fee ceiling
15%
~83
Coinme points in Los Angeles
42 Coinstar kiosks + 41 staffed cash counters
2,290
Coinme locations statewide
Across 506 California cities
$1,000
Statutory daily cap per customer
California Digital Financial Assets Law
$5 / 15%
Statutory fee ceiling
Whichever is greater, per transaction
The crypto kiosk is the most misunderstood piece of financial infrastructure in Los Angeles. People treat it as either a scam or a miracle, and it is neither. It is a vending machine for Bitcoin that charges a lot, sits in a convenience store, and exists because several hundred thousand households in this metro genuinely cannot use the cheaper alternatives.
The names are interchangeable and the signage is not consistent, which trips people up when they search. A Bitcoin ATM, a crypto ATM, a cryptocurrency ATM in Los Angeles and a BTM all describe the same hardware; the industry and California's own statute prefer "crypto kiosk". None of them are ATMs in the banking sense — they do not connect to your bank account and they do not dispense your own money. They sell you an asset, and a few of them buy it back.
What makes Los Angeles unusual is scale on both sides. The city has an enormous cash economy — swap meets in the Valley, wholesale trade downtown, day labour, tipped work, remittance corridors through Boyle Heights and East LA — and it has a retail footprint dense enough that operators can put a machine within walking distance of most of it. Coinme alone lists roughly 83 access points inside Los Angeles, about 42 of them Coinstar units in supermarket lobbies and 41 staffed cash counters, inside a California network of around 2,290 locations across 506 cities. Layer on the dedicated fleets and the metro count runs into the hundreds.
What also makes Los Angeles unusual is that California decided to regulate this hard. Two numbers now govern every kiosk in the state, and if you only remember two things from this page, make it these.
The law, in two numbers
Statutory daily ceiling
$1,000
Per customer, per day, per operator. In force since 1 January 2024 under Senate Bill 401, and upheld after a legal challenge. Operator marketing that quotes $25,000 or $50,000 is describing other states.
Statutory fee ceiling
$5 or 15%
Whichever is greater, per transaction, since 1 January 2025. This is a ceiling and not a rate — but plenty of machines price close to it, and the exchange rate they quote you is a separate margin on top.
Notice what the statute does not control: the exchange rate. An operator can comply perfectly with the 15% fee cap and still quote you a Bitcoin price that is several percent away from the market. This is why the only number worth reading on a kiosk screen is the amount of crypto you will actually receive. The fee line tells you about one component of your cost; the crypto quantity tells you about all of it.
The other thing worth knowing is that these rules changed the industry's shape here. Since 1 July 2026, operators must hold a license from the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the Digital Financial Assets Law, or have a complete application on file, with penalties of up to $100,000 per day for operating without one. Kiosk operators must also report their machine locations to the DFPI, which publishes them. If you want the whole regulatory picture, we lay it out in the California regulation guide.
Operator comparison
Footprints shift constantly and terms differ machine to machine, so treat this as a map of who covers what rather than a price list. Every operator name links to its own locator.
| Operator | Los Angeles footprint | Assets | Sells for cash? | Fee structure | ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coinme (Coinstar + Coinme Cash) | ~83 Los Angeles points — roughly 42 Coinstar kiosks and 41 staffed Coinme Cash counters | BTC, ETH, LTC, DOGE, XLM, LINK, MATIC and more | Buy only at kiosks; sell via app | A kiosk/transaction fee plus an exchange-rate spread; capped in California by statute | Phone number and verification code for the smallest tickets; ID for larger amounts |
| Bitcoin Depot | Dense metro-wide coverage; one of the largest US fleets | BTC primarily; ETH and LTC at some units | Yes — selected kiosks | Historically among the higher-markup operators nationally; the California cap binds here | Phone plus government ID scan is standard |
| CoinFlip | Multiple dozens of LA city sites, including Mid-Wilshire and East LA | BTC, ETH, LTC, plus a rotating altcoin set | Yes — most kiosks | Separate buy and sell markups, disclosed on screen before confirmation | Phone verification, then ID for higher tiers |
| RockItCoin | Downtown LA, Hollywood, Koreatown, Silver Lake, Westwood, Santa Monica | BTC, ETH, LTC and others by unit | Yes — selected kiosks | Kiosk markup plus network fee; the retail-counter product prices differently | Phone number for the entry tier; ID above it |
| Coinhub | Broad LA and Southern California coverage across a 2,000+ machine US fleet | BTC, with additional assets at some units | Buy only | Markup varies by machine; national marketing quotes limits that do not apply in California | Phone plus ID, tiered |
| Hermes Bitcoin | Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, South Bay, Orange County | BTC, plus selected alternatives | Yes — most kiosks | Two-way pricing with separate buy and sell spreads | Phone verification at the entry tier, ID above it |
| Cryptobase | 30+ machines in Los Angeles and growing | BTC, ETH, LTC | Yes — selected kiosks | On-screen quote before confirmation | Phone plus ID depending on amount |
| Bitstop | Scattered LA coverage within a national network | BTC and a small set of alternatives | Buy only | Markup disclosed at the machine | Phone number for entry-tier purchases |
| Athena Bitcoin | Selected LA metro sites; stronger in some Latino-serving retail corridors | BTC, plus alternatives at some units | Yes — selected kiosks | Varies by machine and asset | Phone plus ID tiers |
| Byte Federal | Thin but present LA coverage inside a large US fleet | BTC, ETH, LTC and a wider token menu at some units | Yes — selected kiosks | On-screen quote; wider spreads on smaller-cap assets | Phone plus ID tiers |
All California kiosks are bound by the statutory $1,000 daily and $5/15% fee ceilings regardless of what an operator advertises nationally. Two-way support varies by individual machine. Confirm the specific unit on the operator's locator before traveling.
The widest coverage in the city because it piggybacks on Coinstar machines already sitting in supermarket lobbies. Coinme reports roughly 2,290 California locations statewide.
Typical hosts: Supermarkets, grocery chains, convenience stores
Publicly listed operator with a heavy corner-store footprint. Machine-by-machine terms vary, so read the on-screen quote rather than the website.
Typical hosts: Convenience stores, gas stations, liquor stores, smoke shops
Better altcoin support than most fleets and a genuine two-way network, which is why it appears repeatedly in our sell-for-cash testing.
Typical hosts: Convenience stores, markets, shopping centers
Runs both hardware kiosks and a barcode-style retail product usable at thousands of ordinary checkout counters nationwide — a different rail with different economics.
Typical hosts: Convenience stores, markets; plus a separate retail-counter product
Advertises daily maximums well above California's statutory ceiling. In Los Angeles the $1,000-per-day figure is the one that governs.
Typical hosts: Liquor stores, convenience stores, gas stations
A Los Angeles-headquartered operator rather than a national franchise, which shows in local support responsiveness. Its marketing still cites pre-DFAL limits.
Typical hosts: Convenience stores, 7-Eleven sites, independent retail
Coverage tool
Coverage tool
Filter the twelve LA zones we track by region and by how well served they are. Density reflects machines relative to population and retail footprint, not a raw count — a neighborhood with ten kiosks and 90,000 residents rates worse than one with six and 20,000.
12 / 12 zones
The densest kiosk cluster in the county. Foot traffic from the Fashion District, the Toy District wholesale trade and a large residential tower population keeps machines busy, and cash-heavy wholesale commerce keeps them stocked.
Typical host venues
Convenience stores, 7-Eleven sites, parking-adjacent retail, Fashion District shops
Local tip
Machines inside wholesale-district storefronts frequently hit their cash ceiling by late afternoon on Fridays. Go before noon if you are selling.
Extremely high population density, round-the-clock retail and a strong small-business cash culture combine into one of LA's best-served kiosk zones. Several operators run overlapping coverage within a few blocks.
Typical host venues
Convenience stores, 24-hour markets, plaza retail on Wilshire and Olympic
Local tip
Because coverage overlaps, Koreatown is the one part of LA where it is genuinely worth walking two blocks to compare two on-screen quotes.
Tourist volume plus a dense renter population supports steady kiosk use. Machines near the Walk of Fame skew toward small buys from visitors; those on side streets serve residents.
Typical host venues
Tourist-corridor convenience stores, smoke shops, gas stations on Sunset and Highland
Local tip
Tourist-corridor units tend to price at the top of the permitted range. A machine four blocks north is often measurably cheaper.
A steady band of coverage linking Koreatown to the Westside, with several two-way machines documented on Fairfax and Pico. Mixed-income residential demand rather than tourism drives volume here.
Typical host venues
Neighborhood markets, convenience stores along Fairfax, Pico and La Brea
Local tip
This corridor has an unusually good ratio of two-way machines, making it a practical sell-for-cash zone.
One of the metro's most important cash-to-crypto markets. A large remittance-sending population, high cash usage and comparatively thinner bank-branch density push people toward kiosks and money-service storefronts.
Typical host venues
Liquor stores, carnicerías, money-transfer storefronts, corner markets
Local tip
Bilingual interfaces are common but not universal. If Spanish-language screens matter, check the operator before traveling.
The Valley carries a large share of county kiosk installs, spread over long commercial boulevards rather than concentrated blocks. Coinstar-hosted machines in supermarkets are the backbone here.
Typical host venues
Supermarkets, gas stations, strip-mall convenience stores along Van Nuys Blvd and Sepulveda
Local tip
Supermarket-lobby machines are the most reliable in the Valley — indoor, staffed premises, consistent hours.
Higher household income shifts demand away from kiosks and toward exchanges and brokers. Coverage exists but is thinner per capita than in Van Nuys a few miles north.
Typical host venues
Ventura Boulevard retail, supermarkets, pharmacies
Local tip
If you live here, a bank-funded exchange purchase will almost always beat the nearest kiosk on price.
Real demand driven by cash-preferring and underbanked households, but coverage is patchier and more fragmented than density alone would predict. Stadium-area development has added foot traffic without adding much crypto infrastructure.
Typical host venues
Liquor stores, gas stations, corner markets, check-cashing storefronts
Local tip
This is the clearest under-served buy-side pocket we track in the city — expect longer travel to reach a working two-way machine.
A tech- and student-heavy population that mostly transacts online. Kiosks exist for tourists and for sellers wanting immediate cash, not because locals lack bank access.
Typical host venues
Convenience stores, pharmacies, boardwalk-adjacent retail
Local tip
Venice boardwalk machines are convenience-priced. Westwood units near campus tend to be better value.
A separate city with its own dense retail base, plus port-economy cash flow. Torrance and Carson add solid coverage, and several LA-based operators treat the South Bay as core territory.
Typical host venues
Convenience stores, gas stations, port-adjacent retail, Torrance strip malls
Local tip
Long Beach is well enough covered that you can usually find a two-way machine within a ten-minute drive.
Strong immigrant-entrepreneur cash economy in the western SGV, with clusters around Alhambra and Monterey Park. Pasadena itself skews online, mirroring other high-income pockets.
Typical host venues
Supermarkets, plaza retail in Alhambra, Monterey Park, El Monte
Local tip
The Alhambra–Monterey Park corridor is denser than Pasadena proper despite a smaller population.
Rapid demographic change has not yet been matched by kiosk deployment. Coverage is sparse relative to population, and machines are spread along arterial roads rather than clustered.
Typical host venues
Corner markets, gas stations on Figueroa and York
Local tip
Plan for a drive. The nearest reliable two-way machine is often in Downtown or Glendale rather than in the neighborhood.
No zone matches those filters. Try clearing the search box.
Coverage ratings are our own editorial assessment based on operator location directories, population density and retail mix — see how we research. Machines are added and removed constantly; always confirm a specific address on the operator's own locator before traveling. All 10 operators we track are compared on the Bitcoin ATM guide.
For the full write-up of each district — which streets the machines sit on, what kind of host venue to expect and where the nearest two-way unit tends to be — see our neighborhood-by-neighborhood locations guide.
Mechanics
Six steps, and the order matters. The mistake almost everyone makes is doing step one at the machine instead of at home.
You need a receiving address, ready as a QR code on your phone. Do this at home, calmly, where you can write down your recovery phrase properly. Never let a machine generate a wallet for you — you will not control the keys — and never, under any circumstances, use an address that someone sent you or read to you over the phone. Our wallets guide walks through the options in about ten minutes.
Kiosks live inside other businesses, so the host's opening hours govern access, not the operator's. Check the locator for hours, and if you intend to sell rather than buy, confirm that specific unit is two-way. A machine that has been removed still shows on aggregator maps for weeks.
Enter your mobile number, receive an SMS code, type it in. That gets you into the entry tier. Above it — and the threshold varies by operator — you will be asked to scan a government photo ID, and sometimes to take a selfie for a liveness check. This is a Bank Secrecy Act obligation, not an operator preference.
California requires pre-transaction disclosure, so the fee has to be on screen before you commit. But the number that matters is the amount of crypto you will receive. Pull up the market price on your phone, do the division, and decide. If the machine only reveals the quote after you have selected an amount, that is a design choice you should be suspicious of.
Scan your own QR code. Feed notes in one at a time — most bill acceptors are fussy about worn or folded currency, and a machine that rejects your twenties is not broken, it is just old. Watch the running total on screen and stop before the $1,000 statutory ceiling.
The printed slip is your cost basis for tax purposes and your only leverage if the transaction fails. Thermal paper fades within months, so photograph it in the store before you walk out. Then wait for the on-chain confirmation in your own wallet before you leave the area.
The real number
This table assumes an operator charging the maximum the law allows. Many charge less — but you should know the shape of the worst case before you insert money, because the alternative is one tap away on a phone.
| Cash you insert | Fee at the 15% ceiling | Crypto you receive | Same purchase via ACH on an exchange |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100 cash | $15 | about $85 of Bitcoin | Roughly $99.50 via ACH on an exchange |
| $200 cash | $30 | about $170 of Bitcoin | Roughly $199 via ACH on an exchange |
| $500 cash | $75 | about $425 of Bitcoin | Roughly $497.50 via ACH on an exchange |
| $1,000 cash (the daily maximum) | $150 | about $850 of Bitcoin | Roughly $995 via ACH on an exchange |
Illustrative, assuming an operator at the statutory ceiling and an exchange order-book fee around 0.25–0.5%. Exchange-rate margin at the kiosk is additional and not capped by statute. Exchange figures assume you already hold a verified account and have moved the cash into a bank.
The right way to read that last column is not "kiosks are bad" — it is "kiosks are expensive, so use them for what they are uniquely good at". A kiosk turns physical notes into on-chain crypto in under ten minutes with no bank involved. Nothing else in Los Angeles does that as reliably. If that is your situation, the premium is the price of the only service that works for you, and there is no shame in paying it.
But if you have a functioning bank account and you are standing at a machine because the interface felt approachable, you are handing over somewhere between fifteen and fifty times what the same purchase needs to cost. That is the entire argument, and it is worth ten minutes of reading our card and bank funding guide to avoid.
There is also a middle option people miss. Staffed retail cash counters — Coinme Cash inside participating stores, barcode-style top-up products, paper-money loads into apps you already have — accept physical notes while usually pricing below a dedicated kiosk. We cover those separately in the cash rails guide, because they are a genuinely different product with different economics.
Cash out
Roughly speaking, most kiosks buy and a minority sell. Two-way support is decided per machine, and it is the single most common reason people make a wasted trip.
Most consistent two-way
These are the fleets we would check first if selling for paper cash is the goal.
Two-way at selected units
Buy only at the machine
Selling at a machine works differently from buying and the difference catches people out. You start the sale on screen, the machine gives you a deposit address, you send your coins from your wallet, and then you wait for network confirmations before the cash dispenser releases anything. Depending on the operator that can mean standing in a convenience store for ten to thirty minutes, and some operators issue a redemption code you take back to the machine later instead.
The other constraint is physical: a two-way machine can only pay out the notes it actually holds. A unit that has been busy all day may simply be unable to give you $900, regardless of what the software says. We go through the whole cash-out process, including the far cheaper exchange-withdrawal route, in our sell Bitcoin for cash guide.
Physical geography
Kiosk placement is a retail-real-estate decision, not a financial one. Understanding what operators optimize for tells you where to look — and where not to bother.
An operator wants a host business with long opening hours, steady footfall, a staff member on site, floor space near the entrance, and a customer base that handles cash. In Los Angeles that description lands almost exactly on the convenience store, the gas station forecourt shop, the liquor store, the smoke shop and the neighborhood market. Add supermarket lobbies, where Coinstar's existing machine estate gives Coinme distribution that no dedicated fleet can match.
Follow that logic across the city and the pattern becomes predictable. Dense clusters appear along Downtown's wholesale blocks, through Koreatown's 24-hour retail on Wilshire and Olympic, along the Mid-Wilshire and Fairfax corridors, across Boyle Heights and East LA where corner markets and money-transfer storefronts sit side by side, and along the long commercial boulevards of the San Fernando Valley — Van Nuys, Sepulveda, Ventura.
Coverage thins where household income rises. Pasadena, Encino, Sherman Oaks and much of the Westside have machines, but fewer per resident, because people there transact online. It thins again in Northeast LA — Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Glassell Park — where demographic change has outpaced deployment. And it is patchier than raw density would predict across South LA, Inglewood and Hawthorne, which is the clearest under-served pocket we track. We quantify all of that in the LA crypto market report.
Typical host venues, ranked by how often we see them
Why this matters practically
A kiosk inside a business is subject to that business's hours, its security, its lighting and its cash-handling habits. A supermarket-lobby machine at 2pm is a very different experience from a smoke-shop machine at 1am, even when the operator, the software and the fees are identical.
Before you go
Wallet ready at home
Address as a QR code, recovery phrase written on paper and stored somewhere safe.
Machine confirmed today
Checked on the operator locator, including host opening hours — not an aggregator map.
Two-way confirmed if selling
A brand that sells at one store may not sell at another. It is per machine.
Under the daily ceiling
Plan for $1,000 maximum per operator per day. Do not expect an exception.
Market price on your phone
So you can judge the quoted crypto amount, not just the fee line.
ID with you
Even if the entry tier only needs a phone number. Thresholds vary and you may hit one.
Crisp notes, higher denominations
Old bill acceptors reject worn currency and there is no useful error message.
Daylight, and nobody on the phone
If someone is talking you through a transaction, that is the scam. Walk out.
Receipt photographed in-store
Thermal paper fades. It is your cost basis and your only evidence.
If anybody — a caller claiming to be from a government agency, your bank's fraud team, a utility, a tech support line, a romantic interest, an "investment adviser" — has told you to go to a crypto machine, you are being robbed. The FBI's IC3 recorded more than 13,400 kiosk-related complaints and over $388 million in losses in a single year, with people aged 60 and over accounting for more than $257 million of it. Kiosk transactions cannot be reversed, which is exactly why fraudsters choose them. Hang up, and read our kiosk safety guide.
Questions we actually get
$1,000 per customer per day. That limit comes from California Senate Bill 401, part of the Digital Financial Assets Law, and it has been in force since 1 January 2024. It applies per operator, and a California court upheld it after operators challenged it. If a machine or a website advertises a $25,000 or $50,000 daily ceiling, that figure applies in other states — not here.
California law caps the fee at the greater of $5 or 15% of the transaction value. Many machines price close to that ceiling, so a $200 purchase can legitimately cost $30. On top of the stated fee, most operators also build a margin into the exchange rate they quote you, so read the screen that shows how much crypto you will actually receive, not just the fee line.
Two-way machines. CoinFlip and Hermes Bitcoin run the most consistent two-way coverage in Los Angeles, with Bitcoin Depot, Cryptobase, Athena Bitcoin and Byte Federal offering it at selected units. Buy-only fleets include Coinhub and Bitstop. Coinme kiosks are buy-only at the machine, with selling handled through the app. Always confirm on the operator's locator before traveling — two-way support is a per-machine setting, not a brand-wide guarantee.
Usually a mobile phone number gets you into the lowest tier, and a government ID scan is required above it. Because California operators must be licensed and must comply with federal Bank Secrecy Act obligations, they keep records regardless of the tier. Treat any machine that claims to be fully anonymous with suspicion — a compliant operator in this state cannot make that promise.
No, and the gap is large. A kiosk purchase can cost up to 15% by statute, while an ACH-funded order-book purchase on a licensed exchange typically costs a fraction of one percent. Kiosks are worth their premium in one specific situation: you hold physical cash, you have no usable bank rail, or you need coins in the next ten minutes. Outside that, you are paying a substantial convenience charge.
There is no single official count because machines are installed and removed constantly, and operators report differently. As a reference point, Coinme lists roughly 83 access points inside Los Angeles — about 42 Coinstar kiosks and 41 staffed cash counters — within around 2,290 California locations. Add the dedicated fleets from Bitcoin Depot, CoinFlip, Coinhub, RockItCoin, Hermes Bitcoin, Cryptobase, Bitstop, Athena and Byte Federal, and the metro total runs well into the hundreds.
No. Once the machine broadcasts the transaction to the network it is final, and neither the operator nor law enforcement can claw the coins back. This irreversibility is precisely why fraudsters direct victims to kiosks, and it is the reason our safety guide exists. If anyone is on the phone with you while you stand at a machine, stop.
Next in this series
Twelve LA zones written up in detail — streets, host venues and local quirks.
Read the guide Cash outTwo-way kiosks versus exchange withdrawals, and what each really costs.
Read the guide Cash inStaffed counters and barcode top-ups that usually undercut machine pricing.
Read the guide SafetyThe exact script fraudsters use, and the moment to hang up.
Read the guide RulesDFAL, SB 401, DFPI licensing and how to verify an operator.
Read the guide CheaperTen platforms scored — the route that avoids the 15% ceiling.
Read the guide