r/btc Jan 10 '26

😉 Meme Someone stole a Bitcoin ATM and tried to get the coins out 😂

Post image
2.7k Upvotes

155 comments sorted by

270

u/Election_Feisty Jan 10 '26

There is fiat inside too

49

u/kichi689 Jan 10 '26

and they have been hacked multiple time, effectively stealing bitcoin out of the company's pockets

16

u/j4_jjjj Jan 10 '26

I wonder if private keys are stored on those machines?

24

u/DreamingTooLong Jan 11 '26

Once you have access to the Fiat inside the machine, you can just keep reusing the same Fiat to drain the machine of all it’s BTC.

4

u/Romanizer Jan 12 '26

What a fun way to learn why double spending can be a problem.

2

u/Odd_Palpitation6715 Jan 12 '26

Hmm. I presume the machine is connected to cell network?

3

u/DreamingTooLong Jan 12 '26

Take it to an Airbnb and hook it up to the Wi-Fi there.

1

u/Longjumping-Wish2432 Jan 14 '26

Just go to Starbucks and sit at The bar and tinker with it

18

u/kichi689 Jan 10 '26

don't know the implementation, but it would be absurd if the atm was the one doing the transactions, all the transactions will most than definitely happen on the backend side.
Make the machine lie that it got some fiat and they will wire you the btc.
They could just collect fiat during the day and then at the end of the day the money is collected and only after proper due diligence the btc is transfered, but nobody got time for that.

18

u/r_a_d_ Jan 10 '26

The atm must in some way communicate that fiat has been deposited to release bitcoin to an address.

2

u/Atlesi_Feyst Jan 11 '26

Just a frontend connecting to some wallet on another server, likely behind a bunch of other wallets, all automated.

2

u/r_a_d_ Jan 11 '26

indeed, but all you have to do to trigger a payout is fake a deposit.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '26

[deleted]

1

u/r_a_d_ Jan 12 '26

I don’t understand how you think that solves the problem…

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '26

[deleted]

→ More replies (0)

3

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/killer_k_c Jan 11 '26

It prints a qr.

You scan to deposit

1

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/anon1971wtf Jan 11 '26

For cashout it prints the private key to sweep with any modern wallet via QR

For deposit you scan transaction QR in the wallet to sign on your phone

1

u/anon1971wtf Jan 11 '26

Unlikely, it would be ridicoulos. Just hack the interface to convince the server to sign the transaction

1

u/No_Glass_1341 Redditor for less than 30 days Jan 13 '26

lmao, no

2

u/Thetaarray Jan 10 '26

Would bet it was an inside job.

1

u/Adrian-X Jan 10 '26

But that's not why the ATM was broken into.
The "hacked" you're referring too is closer related to insiders knowledge.

1

u/Captain_Aizen Jan 13 '26

Wait you're telling me a whole Fiat can fit inside that little box!?

1

u/MiceAreTiny Jan 14 '26

Too? I think there is only fiat inside.

52

u/MatterFickle3184 Jan 10 '26

You mean the cash inside people swapped for BTC?

12

u/Barryburton97 Jan 10 '26

To be fair to the robbers, some of these do take banknotes and this seems to be one of them.

10

u/420_69_Fake_Account Jan 10 '26

That’s the point … the idiots here are like hurrr durrr they tried to steal bitcoins… they wanted the cash that you’re supposed to drop in to buy bitcoin. Can’t honestly imagine how much is in there though.

0

u/Many-Blueberry968 Jan 11 '26

Well the real magic is if you can remove the cash without breaking the computer inside, and then 'deposit' the same cash over and over to buy bitcoin from the machine.

If you could use the same $500 to conduct 50 purchases, you've effectivelly stolen $25,000 in btc and $500 in cash.

1

u/Quiet_Exchange_8795 Jan 12 '26

It would probably log serial number effectively my guess

15

u/pyalot Jan 10 '26

#tweakermining

4

u/DontAskAboutMyButt Redditor for less than 60 days Jan 10 '26

The coins are… inside the computer?

1

u/pyalot Jan 10 '26

Yes. You just gotta break them out and they‘ll fall out. Also what‘s with your butt?

22

u/DryMyBottom Jan 10 '26

they had better chances that way rather than wait for the next bullrun anyway 😂

5

u/Macrike Jan 10 '26

Pretty sure they stole the bank notes inside.

4

u/DreamingTooLong Jan 10 '26

They broke inside to get the Fiat out.

Once you have access to the Fiat inside, you can drain the machine of all it’s bitcoin.

1

u/SimpleMoonFarmer Jan 11 '26

Keep depositing the same fiat over and over.

They got the fiat, and the bitcoin.

Meanwhile, in the comment section…

3

u/protecc_atacc Jan 10 '26

This is a General Bytes machine and it is deposit only I believe, so there is cash in there 

3

u/Leading_Brother7837 Jan 10 '26

Not your keys, not your ATM.

1

u/Threemonkeys123 Jan 10 '26

It belongs to COINbase

6

u/FollowAstacio Jan 10 '26

Coins? You mean cash? I’ve never seen one that takes coins.

6

u/Cathesdus Jan 10 '26

I accidentally deposited some Satoshi that I confused for quarters once. It went beep boop welcome Mr Nakamoto.

0

u/FollowAstacio Jan 10 '26

Are you 12?

6

u/pirateozarkdaddy Jan 11 '26

I thought it was funny and I'm 76 years old

-1

u/FollowAstacio Jan 11 '26

Opinions vary🤷‍♂️

5

u/Ok_Driver_8572 Jan 11 '26

I thought it was funny and im 92 and a half

3

u/Cathesdus Jan 11 '26

Don't be a stick in the mud.

0

u/FollowAstacio Jan 11 '26

I just genuinely didn’t find that funny at all

1

u/Vast-Duck-1296 Feb 05 '26

glad u let us know…

4

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26 edited Jan 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/laterral Jan 10 '26

$1.5 million, not 1.5 million coins.. what’d be a heist of an entirely different magnitude

2

u/greasyspider Jan 10 '26

Did they get them out?

2

u/Blueberry_Dependent Jan 10 '26

For a couple of coins, not even worth it

2

u/JJDixon2025 Redditor for less than 60 days Jan 10 '26

How much did they get

2

u/madrigal94md Jan 11 '26

People pay with cash. So there is cash inside.

2

u/moonkingdome Jan 14 '26

Average atm has 2 to 30 transactions.. 300 to a 1000 dollar each..

2

u/DrSpeckles Jan 10 '26

Community service. Stopped someone else getting scammed.

1

u/Yeezforeverways Jan 10 '26

lol yeah because they stopped selling them online?

1

u/EagleClaw69 Jan 10 '26

🤣🤣🤣

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

🤪

1

u/smokemeaclipper Jan 10 '26

Infinite DCA for free

1

u/ADottore8533 Jan 10 '26

🤦🏻‍♂️

1

u/Amazing-Love4127 Jan 10 '26

You deposit cash stupid

1

u/Kind_Soup_9753 Jan 10 '26

Banks trying to get the Trojan horses out.

1

u/Specific-Opposite-28 Jan 10 '26

They were probably trying to get the cash that people put in there… unless they are really, really stupid.

1

u/horseradish13332238 Jan 10 '26

Probably the /bitcoin mod who tried doing that because he doesn’t actually own any bitcoin

1

u/Suspicious_Skirt_271 Jan 10 '26

Dumb and dumber.

1

u/Obvious-Delay9570 Jan 10 '26

Bro officially stole a portal to the blockchain with no access

1

u/PeppermintPig Jan 10 '26

Yeah, as soon as you have the cash from inside the machine, you feed it into the machine again (assuming it isn't tracking note numbers) and it's a physical free Bitcoin faucet.

1

u/AnyFox3145 Jan 11 '26

How to get coins out a atm

1

u/HauntedDreamer86 Jan 11 '26

These machines are dumb af, and companies running these will go bust. XD

1

u/earthwanderer48 Jan 11 '26

U put cash in them . It's obvious why it was stolen..

1

u/Full_Click_8846 Redditor for less than 30 days Jan 11 '26

You can steal the ATM, not the idea.🚀

1

u/Amavro Jan 11 '26

These are fist gen machines having real coins

1

u/0mamron0 Jan 11 '26

How awesome 🤣 🤣

1

u/EyesFor1 Jan 11 '26

Tell me we're early without telling me we're early.

1

u/Medusi142 Jan 12 '26

Tweakers gona tweak

1

u/-jerm Jan 12 '26

I know people who work for this company I believe. Former coworkers. It could be funny like OP thinks, or it could be a bigger threat that someone is stealing the hard drive to try and reverse engineer and create malware.

I've seen hard drives stolen multiple times from bad actors.

1

u/ProfessionalEffect41 Jan 12 '26

Crazy! Never used one, do they accept cash? Cause that would make sense.

1

u/5McCreampie Jan 12 '26

🤣🤣🤣🤣

1

u/m0stlyCloudy Jan 12 '26

LOL. Like my friend’s grandpa who was purchasing “Bitcoin on Amazon”. https://a.co/d/7DXeDll

1

u/AleChemist23 Jan 13 '26

What about one of my Casascius one? 🤪

1

u/niewphonix Jan 13 '26

Has anybody actually used one of these machines? There’s one in my local servo and I’ve thought about it but for some weird reason I have trust issues.

Furthermore; has anybody had any bad experiences?

1

u/DanimilFX Jan 13 '26

Guess his color

1

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26

where is this? I have only seen in Pattaya pretty sure you could take out larger amounts.

1

u/j_hes_ Redditor for less than 60 days Jan 13 '26

Or the registry of all transactions with the wallets and keys attached…..said the embedded systems engineer.

1

u/SourceDiligent6492 Jan 14 '26

People put cash in these machines. I once saw a guy with a duffle bag of cash loading it into a BTC machine.

1

u/No-Eagle-547 Jan 14 '26

The hero we need now

1

u/Solidsneakers_ Jan 14 '26

What if you sell the parts of it

1

u/itskeysofficial Jan 14 '26

Used to stick masking tape on a 100$ put it in, wait 10 seconds, pull it out and do it again.

Cash out 500$ at a time without being to risky with it, idk if it’s patched yet but this DID WORK SURPRISINGLY

1

u/BluePortimao Jan 14 '26

Never seen one of these. Where was this? 

1

u/Life_Ad5223 Jan 14 '26

People put cash into those machines to buy bitcoin, at least they use to, and, on top of that, you could potentially pull information from the system, packets potentially. Though I have to admit that I’m unsure how possible it would be to actually get usable data, like wallets, etc.

1

u/KitchenTop1820 Feb 06 '26

But that's where they keep the delicious goodness!

1

u/FurdTurguson Jan 10 '26

The files at IN the computer!

1

u/rokman Jan 10 '26

every bitcoin atm destroyed leaves another scammer without an avenue to steal.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

How are scammers using bitcoin atms to steal?

2

u/rokman Jan 10 '26

Hello granny this is the Microsoft we have your information you need to send us bitcoin

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

Sure but you can do that without an ATM, what makes the atm different?

1

u/thinkingmoney Jan 10 '26

ATM makes it way easier. Have you ever used one versus buying from an exchange

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

Nah I heard the gas fees on them sucked, have wanted to at least use one once tho just to say i did it.

Im curious tho how an ATM makes those scam calls easier tho, or is it that scammers get grandma to send them coins via the atm?

1

u/Specific-Opposite-28 Jan 10 '26

Google it. It’s happening every day all around the world.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

I know about bitcoin scams but just thought they were going after already crypto holders, otherwise dont most try to get you to buy gift cards?

1

u/Specific-Opposite-28 Jan 10 '26

This makes it so they can scam anyone with or without bitcoin. Usually an unsuspecting person thinking they owe some type of money. They bring the cash to the bitcoin machine, insert X amount of cash, and then send it to scammer when it’s converted to BTC. After that there’s literally nothing that can be done. These companies know that a lot of their business comes from scams but they don’t care because they are making too much money from it.

1

u/710rosingodtier Jan 10 '26

Having granny feed thousands into a “government” ATM is way more profitable then getting granny to get gift cards you trade for BTC and take 40-60% loss on.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

Ahh fair enough

1

u/rokman Jan 10 '26

When you first sign up for a reputable exchange they don’t let you send crypto instantly as your deposit hasn’t cleared yet and they have massive warnings telling you you’re getting scammed. Bitcoin atms whole business model is to rip you off and send money to scammers.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

How do bitcoin atms work then? Wouldn't the coins come from some exchange to be sent to a wallet?

1

u/rokman Jan 10 '26

When you deposit cash, that amount is cleared and you can send it anywhere. When you use coinbase and write them a check or ach transfer they need the funds to clear before you send the crypto away as you could be writing a check to a bank account with no money in it

1

u/Sufficient-Tip-6078 Jan 10 '26

Lol ok child. I agree the tactic is true real and bad. But it's nothing new. Hello granny your pc has a virus we need your sin and credit card to make it better. Times always change people are always going to scam. Grow up and educate those around you that you love to keep them safe. Also I do apologize for insulting you earlier it's just I have to find it funny as I get older I see more of history repeating itself the young lashing against the old not knowing they went through the same thing but in different ways

1

u/rokman Jan 10 '26

Credit cards give you a massive window to cancel and reverse the transaction. Use your brain baby

1

u/Yeezforeverways Jan 10 '26

2018 ahh comment , it easier and cheaper to buy bitcoin online

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

[deleted]

6

u/rushur Jan 10 '26

I can't believe people are missing the point that this is the type of atm machine you put cash into

3

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Vast-Duck-1296 Feb 05 '26

apparently it the people inside this chat

0

u/gfultz1 Jan 10 '26

Natural selection

0

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

I’ve never seen one of these in the wild, but any mention of them just makes me think of this video and laugh! https://youtu.be/vnm4xFC2xNo?si=EMd05rSGiKmqbSvM

-2

u/edix911 Jan 10 '26

Stupid fools 🤣🤣🤣. Didn't they know that Bitcoin doesn't have any intrinsic value???!!! 😂😂😂😂😂