In an effort to curb the misuse of cryptocurrency ATMs, Australian authorities have identified 90 individuals, many of them scam victims or unwitting money mules, following a months-long investigation led by AUSTRAC’s cryptocurrency taskforce.

The operation was conducted in collaboration with federal and state law enforcement agencies and marks a significant step in understanding how crypto ATMs are being co-opted to facilitate fraud and the laundering of illicit funds.

Widow Scammed Out of $281K in Crypto ATM Scam

According to the official press release, the investigation targeted users with unusually high volumes of transactions, drawing from ATM data across all Australian states. Analysts found that many of the top users were not orchestrating criminal schemes, but rather had been manipulated into them.

In a particularly distressing case, a woman in her 70s lost over $281,000 after falling prey to romance and investment scams, and repeatedly deposited cash into crypto ATMs under false promises. Another victim, also a woman in her 70s, was conned out of more than $130,000 after engaging with what she believed was a legitimate investment platform.

AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said the findings were more alarming than expected. He added:

“It’s hard to hear these stories, but now we have a better picture of the harms being perpetrated through crypto ATMs, we are better placed to take action, including working with the industry to harden the sector against criminal misuse.”

In response, AUSTRAC recently introduced minimum operational standards for crypto ATM providers. This includes a $5,000 limit on cash transactions, mandatory scam alerts, and improved customer verification and transaction monitoring protocols. These regulatory changes aim to tackle the exploitation of the machines by fraudsters and reduce opportunities for laundering proceeds from criminal activity.

The operation was coordinated by NSW Police and supported by the Australia-New Zealand Crypto Practitioners Working Group (ANZCPWG). Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Police’s cybercrime coordination unit (JPC3) is also launching a national awareness campaign to educate the public about the risks of using crypto ATMs under coercion or misleading advice.

Older Australians Most Affected by Crypto Scams

Crypto scams in Australia have been increasing at a disturbing rate. More precisely, crypto ATMs, which are now more than 1,600 nationwide, are increasingly being misused by fraudsters who target vulnerable citizens.

Over $3 million was lost to cryptocurrency ATM scams in the country between January 2024 and January 2025. Experts are warning that the real figure could be far higher. According to a report cited by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), 150 scam cases were reported, mostly involving investment fraud, extortion, and romance scams, with victims losing over $20,000 on average. Nearly half of those affected were aged over 51.

TL;DR

• The meme coin mania seems to have faded despite a few brief moments of hope, and the niche’s leader has failed to recapture its momentum and investors’ attention.
• However, there’s a chance for a massive double-digit surge, but only under certain conditions, according to popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez.

If Dogecoin $DOGE can reclaim $0.17 — and with the TD Sequential buy signal now present on the 3-day chart — it could unlock a rebound toward $0.21. pic.twitter.com/BkVgxNdihW

— Ali (@ali_charts) June 28, 2025

To embark on its 30% journey north, the largest meme coin by market cap first needs to reclaim the $0.17 resistance. This doesn’t sound like such a major hurdle, given its current price tag of $0.164.

The second part of the equation involves the TD Sequential, which is a metric often used to determine the underlying asset’s market exhaustion in either direction.

The indicator has presented a buy signal on DOGE’s 3-Day chart. Consequently, Martinez concluded that both of these factors could result in a price pump to $0.21.

This would be a breath of fresh air for Dogecoin, which has struggled quite a lot since early 2025. In the past month alone, its price has tumbled by over 21%.

Despite this rather unfavorable market movement lately, some industry participants have remained highly bullish on DOGE’s future price trajectory. JAVON MARKS, known for his bullish statements on several crypto assets, believes the OG meme coin still has a chance to post a mind-blowing surge that can take it to the stratosphere, based on historic performance.

All we’re saying is that if $DOGE continues to follow its trend as it did consecutively in the past two cycles with its runs growing in size, then we are looking at Dogecoin’s prices doing a more than 120X from here into the $20 levels.

Take a look… pic.twitter.com/OkxGfzUeBp

— JAVON⚡️MARKS (@JavonTM1) June 26, 2025

Such a price tag sounds just a bit far-fetched at the moment. History is no indication for future price movements, and $20 per DOGE would mean a whopping market cap of roughly $3 trillion, which would make it a lot bigger than BTC.

Ripple has just announced that it will drop its cross-appeal against the SEC, signaling the end of a years-long legal siege.

CEO Brad Garlinghouse declared: “We’re closing this chapter once and for all.” With the SEC expected to reciprocate, XRP surged by 5% at one point to $2.2.

But beneath the modest green candle lies a tidal wave of speculation. The question everyone’s whispering, tweeting, and meme-posting about: Could XRP really hit $10,000?

The $10K Obsession

There have been more modest predictions, such as those of social media personality Jake Gagain, who recently calculated that a 50x surge, as touted by Carl Moon, would catapult XRP to $106.50.

Influencers like Lucy Bear have called such projections “conservative,” with Casi Trades boldly stating:

“If you think XRP can’t reach double digits, you don’t understand crypto!”

What about the $10,000 promised land? If the XRP Army is to be believed, this number isn’t plucked from some random crypto casino. Apparently, it traces back to elusive Ripple co-founder and XRPL architect Arthur Britto, who is said to have envisioned a future where XRP would serve as the global liquidity backbone for all payments.

According to enthusiasts, Britto believed that for XRP to fulfil its destiny, it would need to hit a staggering $10,000 per token. And while many have scoffed at such moonshot valuations, diehards seem to be doubling down.

In a recent episode of The Rollup podcast, former NEAR engineer Altan Tutar described the XRP fraternity’s $10,000 conviction as almost religious, saying, “I’ve never seen anything like this in any other community.”

While not directly adding his name to the believers’ list, Tutar acknowledged the rationale behind the conviction, comparing XRP’s potential rise to Bitcoin’s own journey to an all-time high price of $111,814.

“If Bitcoin went to $100K, then why not XRP to $10,000?” he asked.

But Here’s the Reality Check

A $10,000 XRP price implies a market cap of $590 trillion, dwarfing the entire global economy. Even Gagain’s $106 price means a $6.28 trillion valuation, more than double Bitcoin’s peak market cap.

It’s probably why Rollup host Andy bluntly dismissed $10,000 as pure fantasy, stating, “XRP is not going to $10,000… $10 is already a stretch.”