CT to Bitcoin Depot: License to Grill Revoked Amid Revenue Rout and Legal Onslaught

Connecticut's top banking cop hit Bitcoin Depot with a temporary cease-and-desist on March 9, effectively pulling the plug on its money-transmission license. The order alleges the crypto-ATM outfit fumbled the regulatory bag by failing to maintain required net worth, charging fees that would make a loan shark blush, and bungling refunds for those who got rugged at their kiosks.

Talk about terrible timing. In its recent earnings confessional, Bitcoin Depot warned that 2026 revenue could crater by 30-40% as regulators finally start reading the fine print. The firm posted $615 million in 2025 revenue—a lukewarm 7% bump from 2024—while net income did a slow rug pull to $5.1 million from $7.8 million. Q4 revenue dipped to $116 million from $136.8 million a year prior, a slide the company blames on new state rules and the costly art of pretending to be compliant.

The gloomy forecast sent the stock into a death spiral worthy of a degen's worst nightmare. Bitcoin Depot shares are down 56% year-to-date, having plummeted from a June 2025 high of $45.40 to a measly $4.06 this Tuesday—a 91% vaporization since its peak. This financial faceplant was accompanied by the classic corporate combo: a crashing stock and a round of "we're restructuring" layoffs.

Adding to the managerial musical chairs, COO Elizabeth Simer handed in her resignation on March 11. No reason was given, but one can assume her "building in public" phase has concluded.

Connecticut isn't going solo in this regulatory raid. Bitcoin Depot is already tangled in a nationwide web of enforcement actions, like a fly in the legal spiderweb. These include a February lawsuit from the Massachusetts AG alleging it helped grease the wheels for crypto scams, an Iowa AG suit from February 2025 accusing the firm (and partner CoinFlip) of having scam protection softer than a memecoin's fundamentals, and a January $1.9 million settlement with Maine to refund scammed users and maybe, just maybe, try following the rules.

With over 8,400 kiosks still standing at the end of 2025, the company's mounting regulatory headaches could seriously reshape the U.S. crypto-ATM scene—assuming any are left standing. Cointelegraph pinged Bitcoin Depot for a comment, but as of press time, the only response was the sound of crickets and a plunging stock chart.