In their spring economic update, the federal Liberals said the forthcoming ban on the widely available machines, which let people convert cash into crypto, is intended to combat “a primary method for scammers to defraud victims.” (The Logic)

Talking point: Canada’s first-ever bitcoin ATM opened for business in a Vancouver coffee shop in 2013, one of the few ways to convert Canadian dollars to crypto at the time. Today, there are almost 4,000 of them across the country. An October CBC investigation found crypto ATMs are involved in millions of dollars in fraud annually, with criminals finding them useful because of their lack of identity verification and their ability to send and finalize transactions instantly around the world. They’re also one of a shrinking number of ways to buy crypto anonymously without using a bank account—a key promise of Bitcoin. The more policymakers insist on identity verification to buy crypto, the weaker its powers grow to constrain government control over economic activity of all kinds—from terrorist financing to dissident movements in authoritarian regimes.