Summary: A Bitcoin ATM in California cannot take or give one customer more than $1,000 in a day. That ceiling comes from the Digital Financial Assets Law, passed as AB 39, and it has applied since January 1, 2024. The same law caps what a kiosk can charge you at the greater of $5 or 15%, and requires the machine to hand you a receipt showing its fee and how far its price sat from a licensed exchange. The cap applies to unattended machines. It does not apply to a staffed counter, where you can trade far more with a person in front of you.
The rule, in one line
California Financial Code section 3902: an operator may not accept or dispense more than one thousand dollars in a day from or to a customer through a digital financial asset transaction kiosk. That is the whole limit. It is a per-customer, per-day ceiling, not a per-transaction one, so four $250 purchases in an afternoon hit it just as surely as one $1,000 purchase.
The rule binds the operator, not you. There is nothing to apply for and no tier to unlock. A kiosk that offers to go higher is breaking state law, and the operator is the one exposed.
What counts as a kiosk
The law defines a digital financial asset transaction kiosk as an electronic machine that lets a customer buy or sell digital assets on the spot, whether it is a standalone box in a gas station or a terminal bolted to a counter. The defining feature is that the machine handles the trade.
Three things are outside the definition, and outside the cap:
- Online exchanges. Coinbase, Kraken and the rest are licensed differently and have their own limits, usually tied to your funding method rather than the calendar day.
- Staffed counters. When a licensed business serves you in person, verifies your ID and executes the trade for you, the kiosk chapter does not apply. The daily amount is set by the business's own compliance program.
- Peer-to-peer trades. Selling to someone you found online is not a kiosk transaction. It is also where most cash-trade robberies happen, which is a different problem with the same solution.
Three rules that apply to every kiosk in California
The kiosk chapter is short. Three parts of it change what you experience at the machine.
- The daily cap — section 3902, since January 1, 2024. $1,000 per customer per day, counted across that operator's machines, not reset by using a different one down the road.
- The fee cap — section 3904, since January 1, 2025. An operator cannot collect more than the greater of $5 or 15% of the US dollar equivalent of the Bitcoin in the transaction, measured against the publicly quoted price on a licensed exchange when you start it. Note what that means in practice: 15% is the legal maximum a kiosk may charge, and the industry has been pricing near the ceiling for years. It is not a discount.
- Disclosure and receipt — section 3905. Since January 1, 2025, the operator has to give you the terms in writing before the transaction, in English and in whatever language it advertised to you in. The receipt has to show the fees collected and the spread between the price you got and the price at a licensed exchange.
Read the spread line on the receipt
The receipt requirement is the most useful part of the law and the least known. A kiosk's headline fee is not the whole cost. The other half is the spread: the gap between the exchange price of Bitcoin and the price the machine gave you. A kiosk can advertise a modest fee and still take a large cut in the spread, and for years there was no way for a customer to see it.
Now the receipt has to state it. If you use a kiosk, keep the receipt and read that line. Add the fee and the spread together and you have the real cost of the trade. Compare that number, not the advertised percentage, against what any other option would have cost you.
This is the same math we do out loud at the counter before you pay, which is why we tell people to ask for it everywhere.
How the law arrived
- October 2023. The Governor signs AB 39, creating the Digital Financial Assets Law and a dedicated chapter for kiosks.
- January 1, 2024. The $1,000 daily cap takes effect, along with receipt requirements and an obligation for operators to report every kiosk location to the state.
- January 1, 2025. The fee cap and the written pre-transaction disclosure take effect.
- September 2024. AB 1934 moves the licensing deadline from July 1, 2025 to July 1, 2026.
- July 1, 2026. Operating without a DFPI license or a completed application on file is no longer allowed. The DFPI has since brought enforcement actions under the law, including orders requiring operators to refund customers.
Why the cap exists
The daily limit was written as a fraud control, not a tax. In the cases that drove the bill, victims were told by someone on the phone to withdraw cash and feed it into a kiosk, often several thousand dollars at a time, and the money was gone the moment the transaction confirmed. A $1,000 ceiling does not stop that conversation, but it slows it down and it caps a single day's damage.
The practical effect for everyone else is that a kiosk is now only useful for small amounts. If you are buying more than $1,000, the machine was never going to be the right tool.
What to do when you need more than $1,000
Two options remain, and they split cleanly on whether you are holding cash.
- An exchange, if the money is in a bank account and you are comfortable doing it yourself. No daily cap in the kiosk sense, but no cash either, and a first transfer can take days to clear.
- A staffed counter, if you are holding cash or you want a person to do the trade with you. We trade up to $50,000 in cash per day with a government photo ID, show the rate and the fee on screen before you agree to anything, and send the coins to a wallet you control. Larger amounts settle by bank wire through the OTC desk.
If you are in Northern California, the counters are in downtown San Jose and Stockton. There is more on how a cash trade runs in our cash guide, and a full comparison of every route in how to buy Bitcoin in California.
One more thing worth knowing
If someone you have not met in person is telling you to put cash into a Bitcoin ATM, stop. Government agencies, utilities, banks and police never ask for payment in Bitcoin, and no legitimate business needs you to do it at a kiosk today. The daily cap exists because that script worked often enough to warrant a law. Our staff are trained to spot the common versions of it and will stop a transaction to ask. If any of this sounds like a call you are on right now, read the scam awareness guide first.
Questions people ask
How much can you take out of a Bitcoin ATM in California?
A kiosk cannot accept or dispense more than $1,000 from or to one customer in a day. The limit is set by California Financial Code section 3902 and has applied since January 1, 2024. It is a legal ceiling on the machine, not a setting the operator chooses, so no kiosk in the state can go above it.
Can I use two different Bitcoin ATMs to get around the $1,000 limit?
Not with the same operator. The limit is per customer per day, not per machine, and operators are required to identify each customer across their own kiosks so the daily total is enforced. Splitting a purchase across operators to defeat the cap is also the pattern anti-money-laundering programs are built to flag. If you need more than $1,000, use a staffed counter or an exchange instead.
What is the maximum fee a Bitcoin ATM can charge in California?
Since January 1, 2025, section 3904 caps the operator's charges on a single transaction at the greater of $5 or 15% of the US dollar equivalent of the Bitcoin involved, priced against a licensed exchange. Fifteen percent is a ceiling, not a going rate, and it is far above what a staffed counter or an online exchange charges.
Does the $1,000 limit apply when selling Bitcoin?
Yes. The statute covers what a kiosk may accept from a customer and what it may dispense to one, so cashing out is capped the same way buying is. Two-way kiosks are subject to the same daily ceiling.
Where can I buy more than $1,000 of Bitcoin with cash in California?
At a staffed counter. The cap applies to unattended kiosks, not to a licensed business that serves you in person. The Bitcoin Store trades up to $50,000 in cash per day with a government photo ID at its counters in San Jose and Stockton, and larger amounts settle by bank wire through the OTC desk.
Who is allowed to operate a Bitcoin ATM in California now?
Only businesses that hold a DFPI license under the Digital Financial Assets Law or have a completed application on file. That requirement took effect July 1, 2026 after AB 1934 moved the original 2025 date. The DFPI publishes the locations operators report to it, and it has brought enforcement actions with fines and customer refunds against operators that broke the kiosk rules.
The bottom line
The $1,000 figure is a legal ceiling on unattended machines, fixed by statute and identical at every kiosk in California. Fees on those machines are capped at the greater of $5 or 15%, and the receipt now has to show you both the fee and the spread. Above the cap, the choice is an exchange for bank money or a staffed counter for cash. Either way, add the fee and the spread before you decide what a trade actually cost.