House committee advances H.137, extends kiosk moratorium and adopts consumer protections for crypto kiosks

The Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development on May 6, 2025 voted to advance H.137 to the full House after agreeing to Senate amendments that extend the existing moratorium on new cryptocurrency kiosks for one year and add several consumer-protection measures negotiated among the Department of Financial Regulation (DFR), CoinFlip and AARP Vermont.

The measure, as amended, keeps the moratorium through July 1, 2026, requires kiosk operators to register with the DFR, and imposes disclosure, refund and compliance requirements including a 30-day new-customer refund period, a 90-day window measured from the last fraudulent transaction for other refunds, and a fee disclosure with a 15% cap on transaction fees.

Why it matters: committee members said they were balancing two goals — protecting Vermonters, especially older residents vulnerable to scams, and creating a regulatory framework to allow heavily regulated operators to remain in the state so the committee can gather more data on kiosk activity and fraud rates.

Committee discussion focused on three strands: how much kiosk activity is occurring in Vermont and whether it is associated with fraud, whether the bill’s disclosures and refund windows will meaningfully protect victims, and whether the fee cap and other compliance costs make the business model viable.

Aaron Ference, deputy commissioner for banking with the Department of Financial Regulation, summarized the department’s posture: "I can't investigate fraud…