Walk-in Bitcoin shops, teller windows and retail-counter sales (US), 2026-10-09

Research, not legal or financial advice. This file describes businesses and court cases from public sources. It is not an endorsement of any business, and it does not say that any business named here is or is not licensed unless a cited regulator says so.

• Date checked: 2026-10-09 unless an item gives another date. "(unverified)" means no primary source confirmed it.
• Rules that apply to these businesses: legislation/us-kyc-aml-selling-bitcoin.md. Saved sources: sources/kyc-aml/INDEX.md. Banking for crypto businesses: market/2026-10-09-banking.md (another researcher).

Summary

• "Bitcoin Central" is a Las Vegas business, not a New York one. The closest public match is Bitcoin Central, 3420 Spring Mountain Road, Las Vegas, NV 89102. Spring Mountain Road is Las Vegas's Chinatown corridor. The business offers in-person, by-appointment purchases and sales of bitcoin for cash. New York's famous walk-in venue was the Bitcoin Center NYC near the New York Stock Exchange. It opened on New Year's Eve 2013, its operating company went bankrupt in 2015, and it was an events and education space rather than a licensed seller.
• Walk-in bitcoin in Las Vegas today comes in four forms: 1. Appointment-based cash desks such as Bitcoin Central. 2. Teller branches run by kiosk companies: a Coinhub Exchange branch at 3209 W Sahara Ave, and a DigitalMint teller window listed at 547 E Sahara Ave. 3. Retail checkout counters: Coinme Cash, at CVS and other stores. 4. About 450 kiosks statewide (447 in April 2026). Nevada has no kiosk statute. Its regulator enforces ordinary money-transmitter licensing against kiosk operators.
• Retail-counter sales by ATM companies are shrinking fast. Bitcoin Depot (BDCheckout) filed for Chapter 11 on 2026-05-18 and took its 9,000+ machines offline. Coinme agreed on 2026-10-07 with 34 state-level regulators to leave the kiosk business, starting with Georgia by 2027-01-01.
• Prosecutions of unlicensed cash-for-bitcoin sellers follow one pattern. The seller advertises on LocalBitcoins or Telegram, meets buyers in coffee shops or cars, and charges 8–25% commissions. An undercover agent then says the money is drug money. The charges are 18 U.S.C. § 1960 (unlicensed money transmitting), money laundering and often failure to keep an AML program. Appeals courts upheld these convictions in 2025 (First Circuit, Freeman) and 2026 (Second Circuit, Goklu, Manhattan).

1. "Bitcoin Central": which business is meant

2. Bitcoin Center NYC (the 2014 Wall Street venue)

• Opened: a New Year's Eve event on 2013-12-31, about 100 feet from the NYSE. Co-founder Nick Spanos; deputy director Austin Alexander (International Business Times, 2014-01-24). Listings give the address as 40 Broad Street (listing sites, unverified).
• What it did: classes, meetups, auctions of mining equipment, and a gathering place for peer-to-peer traders (the "Satoshi Square" group). IBTimes found no evidence the center sold bitcoin itself. It "serves as a venue where independent traders gather" (2014-01-24). Politicians used it to raise bitcoin donations: Rep. Steve Stockman on 2013-12-31 and Maine candidate Eric Brakey in January 2014 (Wikipedia, citing HuffPost 2014-01-07 and IBTimes 2014-01-24).
• Regulation: its deputy director said in January 2014, "we want to comply with the state in every way; it's all just a fog." NYDFS had virtual-currency hearings set for 2014-01-28/29. The BitLicense followed in June 2015 (23 NYCRR 200).
• Decline: a New York Business Journal headline of 2015-03-19 reads "Bitcoin Center NYC bankruptcy barely dents blockchain momentum" (article paywalled; not read). A mirror of the deleted Wikipedia article says the operating company filed for bankruptcy in 2015, citing a landlord dispute and NYDFS uncertainty. It later used addresses at 25 Cleveland Place and 157 Prince Street, and MapQuest also lists 2307 Broadway as "CLOSED". The mirror says it appeared in Netflix's Banking on Bitcoin (2016) (wikibin.org; low reliability, unverified).
• Today: no NYC storefront that sells bitcoin over the counter was found (gap). NYDFS's licensee list was blocked to automated fetching. Walk-in buying in NYC is mainly through kiosks in delis and convenience stores run by BitLicensed firms (general observation, unverified). New York has no kiosk statute. Bill S 9891-B, which passed the Senate on 2026-06-03, would also cover "cashier crypto exchanges", that is, teller windows (see the legislation file, § 12).

3. Las Vegas walk-in sellers, including Spring Mountain Road (Chinatown)

Bitcoin Central, 3420 Spring Mountain Road

• Source: its website bitcoincentral.vegas (retrieved 2026-10-09), the MapQuest listing (same address, geocode 36.1267, −115.1859, phone (866) 784-7882), and a Constant Contact newsletter (undated).
• What it offers: "Buy and Sell Bitcoin In Person". It invites customers to "reach out to us for a professional 1-on-1 meeting in a safe, private, and comfortable location" instead of "sketchy, crowded gas station ATMs or sitting in a coffee shop with a stranger". Appointments are 10am–4pm Mon–Fri, and the site mentions an "in-person BTC ATM". The newsletter advertises rates "far below those charged by Bitcoin ATM's". The site has a scam checklist (lottery wins, overpayment checks, requests to "wire, send, or ship" money).
• Compliance statements on the site: "As FINCEN registered money transmitters it is required by law that we collect certain information and keep records of all our transactions." The footer says instead: "Bitcoin Central is a marketing company generating leads that are vetted and processed by Registered MSB's in the states being marketed to." Which MSB processes the trades is not named. We could not check the FinCEN MSB registry, because msb.fincen.gov disallows all robots, or Nevada licensing (NMLS Consumer Access) (gap; check by hand).
• Why this matters (analysis). Nevada requires a licence, or a written authorized-delegate contract with a licensee, for anyone who "advertise[s], solicit[s] or hold[s]" itself out as providing money transmission (NRS 671.040). The "lead generator for registered MSBs" model is how a storefront can operate without its own licence, provided the MSB behind it is licensed in Nevada and has appointed the shop as its delegate.
• Location: 3420 Spring Mountain Rd is at the east end of the Spring Mountain corridor, roughly a mile east of Chinatown Plaza (distance estimated from map coordinates; unverified). MapQuest lists other businesses at the same address, including the Zombie Apocalypse Store.

Coinhub Exchange branch, 3209 W Sahara Ave (89102)

• Source: coinhubatm.com branch page (retrieved 2026-10-09).
• "Visit a Coinhub Exchange Branch to complete your crypto transactions with the help of a live teller or Bitcoin ATM. No bank account needed." Open Mon–Sat 10am–5pm. "Bring a Valid ID & Cash." Teller-assisted limit "up to $150,000 per day". A second branch is at 2415 E Thomas Rd, Phoenix.
• Operator: LSGT Services LLC dba Coinhub, NMLS #2344713; the site claims FinCEN registration and "2,000+ ATMs nationwide".
• Regulatory history: California DFPI fined Coinhub $675,000 ($105,000 for restitution) on 2025-10-31. The violations were fees above the cap, cash over the $1,000/day kiosk limit, incomplete receipts and missing disclosures (Yahoo Finance, news).

DigitalMint "Bitcoin ATM Teller Window", 547 E Sahara Ave, Ste 103 (89104)

• Source: MapQuest listing (retrieved 2026-10-09). The listing describes DigitalMint as a "Bitcoin ATM and Teller network" with a stated daily purchase limit of $20,000. The listing is undated, so whether the window is still open is unverified.

Coinme in Las Vegas (Coinstar kiosks and Coinme Cash counters)

• Source: coinme.com Las Vegas locations page (retrieved 2026-10-09): 81 locations, made up of 35 Coinstar Bitcoin ATMs (for example in Albertsons) and 46 "Coinme Cash" retail counters (for example CVS, 10400 W Charleston Blvd). With Coinme Cash, the customer funds a Coinme wallet "with cash at the checkout counter"; the service is provided by Green Dot. An account needs "a valid form of state-issued ID". The "daily purchase limit" is "in most cases … $5000". Coinme Inc. is NMLS ID 1185542.
• Watch: under the 2026-10-07 multistate consent order, Coinme exits kiosks in participating states. Nevada participated. Appendix A of the order lists it, with a $15,297.13 penalty share (order, Appendix A–B; completeness check). Whether Coinme Cash counters continue is not stated. The order defines a "Virtual Currency Kiosk" as "an electronic terminal, kiosk, ATM, or other machine, acting as a mechanical agent" (§ IV.A.3). On that wording a cashier's checkout counter looks outside it, but that is our reading (unverified) (§ 5).

Other Las Vegas listings (names only, not verified)

• A Bitstop kiosk at a Rebel store, 4325 E Charleston Blvd (bitstop.co listing).
• A Lamassu kiosk at "Terrible's Chevron (West Spring Mountain Road)" and a "Bitcoin Teller in Las Vegas – Spring Spa" listing (CoinATMRadar search-result titles; the site blocked fetching).
• LibertyX "Buy bitcoin in Las Vegas" (the page is rendered by JavaScript; store list not read).
• Chinese-language cash or USDT shops in Chinatown: no public source naming such a business was found (gap). Only businesses that appear in public listings are named here.

Nevada market context

• 447 bitcoin kiosks in Nevada, 336 of them in Southern Nevada (Nevada Current, 2026-04-03). No kiosk-specific statute. AARP is asking for daily limits, warnings, refunds and fee caps.
• Coin Cloud (Cash Cloud, Inc.), a large kiosk operator, filed Chapter 11 on 2023-02-07 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada. It listed "more than 5,000 Coin Cloud ATMs in 47 states" and Genesis Global Trading as its largest creditor ($116.4M) (PYMNTS, 2023-02-08). Its Las Vegas headquarters is from general knowledge (unverified).
• Nevada FID actions against kiosk operators: Athena Bitcoin ($10,000, 2025-05-15, kiosks run without a licence); Bitcoin Depot ($10,000, 2026-03-11, late audited financials); Knack Kiosk ($500, 2026-02-02, kiosk running on a lapsed licence). All saved.

4. Retail-counter sales by ATM operators

Bitcoin Depot: BDCheckout

• How it worked: launched 2022-06-30 with InComm Payments' VanillaDirect barcode network. The customer picks a store in the Bitcoin Depot app and shows a barcode at the register; the cashier scans it and takes up to $500 cash, which is "instantly loaded" to the account to buy bitcoin. It launched in 22 states plus Puerto Rico at "thousands" of convenience, pharmacy and big-box stores (PR Newswire, 2022-06-30). A later headline reports a Georgia launch "expanding footprint to 28 states" (Yahoo Finance; date not read).
• Collapse: Bitcoin Depot filed Chapter 11 on 2026-05-18 in the Southern District of Texas. The CEO cited "increasingly stringent compliance obligations, including new transaction limits", "outright restrictions or bans" and "increasing litigation and regulatory enforcement". The "more than 9,000 machines" went offline. The company had also lost $3.6M to hackers in April 2026 (ATM Marketplace, news). In the bankruptcy sale, Bitcoin Bancorp bought 2,547 ATMs for $620,750, plus floorspace agreements, IP and the BitcoinDepot.com domain for $110,500. Q1 2026 revenue had fallen 49% (CoinDesk, 2026-09-10).
• Observed 2026-10-09: bitcoindepot.com redirects to a "/lander" page. What happened to BDCheckout after the filing is not reported in the sources read (gap).
• Earlier enforcement: Iowa AG suit (2025-02-26) and a Maine settlement of $1.9M to reimburse victims from 2022–2025 (AARP, news). Iowa filings are in sources/exchanges/.

Coinme at Coinstar

• Model: Coinme-powered bitcoin machines inside Coinstar coin-counting kiosks in supermarkets. Customers paid cash and received a paper voucher to redeem in the Coinme app. Coinme later added "Coinme Cash" at retail counters (see § 3).
• Enforcement:
• California DFPI, 2025-06-25: $300,000 penalty and $51,700 restitution for exceeding the $1,000/day kiosk cap and missing receipt disclosures (Cal. Fin. Code §§ 3902, 3905). This was the first enforcement action under the DFAL (JD Supra, news).
• Washington DFI, 2025-12-01: temporary cease-and-desist; ordered to halt money transmission and repay more than $8 million. The allegations: unredeemed vouchers were "illegally converted … into corporate revenue", net worth fell short from 2020 to 2025, and reports were inaccurate (Yahoo Finance, news).
• Multistate, 2026-10-07: consent order with Georgia DBF and regulators in 31 other states, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Coinme ceases kiosk operations (Georgia: before 2027-01-01), hires an independent BSA/AML consultant and pays $2.5M shared among 34 agencies (Georgia DBF release, 2026-10-08; saved). The ABA Banking Journal put Coinme's network at about 6,000 Coinstar machines (2026-10-08).
• Ownership: news headlines report that Polygon Labs agreed to acquire Coinme (with Sequence, $250M combined) (date and closing unverified).

5. Prosecutions of unlicensed walk-in and cash-for-bitcoin sellers

Nevada: no prosecution of a Las Vegas walk-in or cash-for-bitcoin seller was found in these searches. The Nevada cases found were FID administrative fines against kiosk companies (§ 3) (gap).

Patterns across the cases:

• Sellers charged 8–25% commissions, well above the market (Goklu, Herocoin, Freeman).
• They advertised on LocalBitcoins, Telegram or Signal and met in coffee shops, cars or bars.
• Several ignored a FinCEN registration letter: Freeman in 2018, and Herocoin in July 2018, which then registered but did not comply.
• No-ID kiosks and repeated $3,000-or-less purchases were cited as AML failures (Herocoin, Kalra, Freeman).
• Most criminal cases became money-laundering cases once an undercover agent said the cash or coins came from drugs or other crime. That part of the conduct (§ 1960(b)(1)(C) and § 1956) is outside the DOJ's 2025 "Ending Regulation by Prosecution" policy.

Gaps

• FinCEN MSB registry (robots disallow) and NMLS Consumer Access were not checked for Bitcoin Central, Coinhub or DigitalMint. Check them by hand.
• No primary source on BDCheckout after the Bitcoin Depot bankruptcy. (Nevada's participation in the Coinme order is now confirmed from the order's Appendix A; completeness check.)
• The DOJ press-release pages for Tetley, Faiella, Freeman and Goklu sentencing could not be fetched (bot challenge). ICE versions were used where they existed.
• No public record was found of Chinese-language OTC shops in Las Vegas Chinatown.