Posted on Aug 16, 2023
Kansas City has over 100 high-fee crypto ATMs — mostly in low-income neighborhoods
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Installed inside gas stations, liquor stores and smoke shops, cryptocurrency kiosks tend to be placed in Kansas City neighborhoods with larger numbers of Black and Latino residents. Critics say they're a targeted attempt to exploit financially vulnerable people with steep fees for a volatile product.
Finance professor Jocelyn Evans first encountered a cryptocurrency ATM on the way to talk about financial education with students last fall.
Evans stopped at a gas station on her way to Sumner Academy in Kansas City, Kansas. She came across the machine with the word “BITCOIN” on the screen. Store staffers weren’t familiar with the machine, which didn’t provide much explanation about how cryptocurrencies work.
“It’s a low-income area with primarily Hispanic, African-American, people who are immigrants,” said Evans, the Henry W. Bloch endowed chair of finance and an associate dean at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “I just wondered how much people know about cryptocurrency and, with a standalone machine, how much people knew when they made transactions with these machines.”
Finance professor Jocelyn Evans first encountered a cryptocurrency ATM on the way to talk about financial education with students last fall.
Evans stopped at a gas station on her way to Sumner Academy in Kansas City, Kansas. She came across the machine with the word “BITCOIN” on the screen. Store staffers weren’t familiar with the machine, which didn’t provide much explanation about how cryptocurrencies work.
“It’s a low-income area with primarily Hispanic, African-American, people who are immigrants,” said Evans, the Henry W. Bloch endowed chair of finance and an associate dean at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “I just wondered how much people know about cryptocurrency and, with a standalone machine, how much people knew when they made transactions with these machines.”
Kansas City has over 100 high-fee crypto ATMs — mostly in low-income neighborhoods
Posted from kcur.org
Kansas City
Economics
Kansas City
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
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This vaguely reminds me of pawn shops in poor neighborhoods that buy gold. They are legal, but exploitive. Crypto is legit as an investment, but high fees for purchase harm more than help.
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No one is "trying to exploit financially vulnerable people with steep fees" That claim is complete BS.
Yes, the machines are predominantly installed in "neighborhoods with larger numbers of Black and Latino residents" but the purpose is not to exploit the poor. The point of cryptocurrency ATMs is to exploit people who need a way to anonymously move money -- and to do that those people need to HAVE money to move.
Just ask yourselves what business enterprises have a need to hide their financial transactions and also are common in these neighborhoods -- you will quickly see who these machines are "exploiting"
Yes, the machines are predominantly installed in "neighborhoods with larger numbers of Black and Latino residents" but the purpose is not to exploit the poor. The point of cryptocurrency ATMs is to exploit people who need a way to anonymously move money -- and to do that those people need to HAVE money to move.
Just ask yourselves what business enterprises have a need to hide their financial transactions and also are common in these neighborhoods -- you will quickly see who these machines are "exploiting"
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