The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled in a case involving a bitcoin scam. A man learned he had been scammed after depositing $11,500 dollars into a bitcoin ATM in Cedar Falls in August of 2024.
Cedar Falls police seized the cash from the machine and the bitcoin company filed to get the money after police failed to find the fraudster. The district court ruled that Bitcoin Deport couldn’t recover the money under a new law that took effect on July 1st of 2025.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled the new law is not retroactive, so the bitcoin company has a right to the money. In another twist, a seperate judge ordered the money returned to the man who deposited it, but the Bitcoin Depot had not been notified of that hearing.
The Iowa Supreme Court has ordered the case back to district court to be sorted out based on their ruling.
