Australia’s AUSTRAC orders Cryptolink to shut down its 96 Bitcoin ATMs

Australia’s financial intelligence unit has suspended Cryptolink Pty’s registration for three months and ordered the operator to take its 96 Bitcoin ATMs offline nationwide. For PSPs and high-risk payment providers, the point is not the ATMs themselves; it is the enforcement pattern around AML/CTF controls, transaction reporting, and regulator cooperation.

1. AUSTRAC said the restrictions were tied to repeated breaches of Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules, or AML/CTF. Cryptolink’s registration as a bitcoin ATM operator was suspended for three months, and the company was told to shut down its network across Australia.
2. In October 2025, Cryptolink was fined 56,340 Australian dollars ($39,500) for delayed transaction reports and weak risk controls. At the time, the company also entered into an agreement with AUSTRAC that required independent auditors to review its transactions and submit a final remediation report by March 2026.
3. AUSTRAC said that after the initial disclosures, Cryptolink stopped reporting transactions above 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,000). Officials also said the company did not respond to requests for information from the regulator.
4. Cryptolink’s network consists of 96 crypto ATMs in Australia, with most located in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The terminals allow cash exchange of up to 5,000 Australian dollars (about $3,530) into ten cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, and Dogecoin.
5. In a separate report on the crypto industry, AUSTRAC said more than 400 crypto exchanges registered in Australia and over 5,000 remittance services are exposed to high risks of digital assets being used for money laundering, fraud, and terrorism financing.