Bitcoin Depot Inc., once North America's largest operator of Bitcoin ATMs, entered chapter 11 to wind down rather than reorganize. The company and 16 affiliates filed voluntary petitions on May 18, 2026 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (Houston Division), lead case number 26-90528, before Judge Christopher M. Lopez. The debtors took their network of roughly 9,700 kiosks offline and put the estates on a section 363 sale track, with distributions to flow through a post-sale Liquidation Trust.
The case architecture is built around a Combined Disclosure Statement and Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation rather than a plan of reorganization, and the debtors funded the cases on consensual cash collateral instead of new-money DIP financing. Funded debt is under $16 million, but the case carries an overlay of regulatory investigations, an $18.5 million arbitration award, near-total C-suite turnover in the months before filing, and an Investigation Subcommittee that controls which insiders may receive plan releases.
Bitcoin Depot Inc. (17 jointly administered entities)
Court
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston Division)
Case Number
26-90528
Petition Date
May 18, 2026
Judge
Hon. Christopher M. Lopez
Case Path
Section 363 sale; Combined Disclosure Statement and Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation
Claims Agent
Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC
Case Snapshot
Regulatory Actions, KYC Mandate, and Revenue Decline
The debtors traced the filing to a combination of legal exposure, regulatory enforcement, and a revenue contraction that followed a compliance overhaul. As described in the Combined Disclosure Statement and Plan of Liquidation, Bitcoin Depot faced lawsuits and investigations from eleven state agencies, voluntary information requests from the Securities and Exchange Commission, and inquiries from the Federal Trade Commission concerning alleged fraud and anti-money-laundering compliance failures. Private litigation included an arbitration award in favor of Cash Cloud, Inc. against subsidiary BitAccess in the approximate amount of $18.5 million.
The operational trigger was a mandatory Know-Your-Customer verification process implemented in October 2025. After that process took effect, transaction volume and revenue declined: the filing reports that revenue fell approximately $80.7 million, or 49.2%, in the first quarter of 2026 against the first quarter of 2025. Public reporting in the weeks before the petition tracked the same deterioration, with the company disclosing a going-concern warning and a $9.5 million net loss for the quarter while it faced multiple state-regulator suits.
Bitcoin Depot, a publicly traded parent listed on Nasdaq under the ticker BTM, issued a going-concern disclosure in its SEC filings shortly before the petition, citing mounting legal judgments, regulatory headwinds, and declining revenue. The shares fell roughly 80% after the filing and shutdown plan became public. In its chapter 11 Current Report on Form 8-K, the company cautioned that shareholders could experience a significant or complete loss and disclosed that it had issued WARN Act notices to its entire workforce, with executive terminations anticipated to take effect July 17, 2026. The company framed its model as unsustainable under tightening U.S. crypto rules and took its entire kiosk fleet offline as it moved to sell the assets.
The business being wound down. As of December 31, 2025, Bitcoin Depot operated approximately 9,700 kiosks and ran its "BDCheckout" cash-to-Bitcoin program at approximately 16,300 retail locations, according to the disclosure statement. The enterprise also includes BitAccess (transaction-processing software), Kutt, Inc. (social betting), and ReadyBucks (a business-advance platform). Of the twenty-four entities in the organizational structure as of the petition date, seventeen are debtors in these cases, and Brandon Mintz is the controlling shareholder.
C-Suite Turnover and the Investigation Subcommittee
Leadership changed almost entirely in the five months before the petition. The disclosure statement records that Brandon Mintz resigned as chief executive on January 1, 2026 and became Executive Chairman, with Scott Buchanan stepping in as CEO and Elizabeth Simer as COO. On February 13, 2026, Chief Legal Officer Christopher Ryan and Chief Compliance Officer Philip Brown resigned. By March 2026, Buchanan and Simer had resigned, Mintz had stepped down as Executive Chairman, and Alex Holmes was appointed CEO and Chairman.
The restructuring governance was assembled in the days immediately before filing. On May 13, 2026, Ivona Smith was appointed an independent director, and on May 14, 2026, Thomas Studebaker was named Chief Restructuring Officer and a Restructuring Committee was formed, as detailed in the plan materials. The Restructuring Committee houses an Investigation Subcommittee, advised by independent counsel, that examines insider and affiliate conduct.
That subcommittee carries direct consequences for the plan's release structure. The debtors retained Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as independent counsel to the Investigation Subcommittee, with Shannon Lee Beatty LLP as local and conflicts counsel. Under the plan, only parties recommended by the Investigation Subcommittee are eligible to be Released Parties, tying the scope of third-party releases to the outcome of the insider review.
Restructuring professionals. The debtors retained Vinson & Elkins LLP as restructuring counsel, effective April 24, 2026, and Portage Point Partners as financial advisor, with Thomas Studebaker of Portage Point serving as Chief Restructuring Officer. On June 27, 2026, certificates of no objection were filed for the Vinson & Elkins retention and the Chief Restructuring Officer retention, and the court entered orders authorizing both retentions on June 30, 2026. On July 2, 2026, the court also entered orders authorizing the Investigation Subcommittee to retain Shannon Lee Beatty LLP as local and conflicts counsel and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as independent counsel.
Aggregate funded debt as of the petition date was approximately $15.6 million. The disclosure statement breaks the obligations into a term loan and two equipment-financing facilities.
Facility
Amount
Notes
Term Loan Facility
~$13,338,000 principal
Plus $198,784 accrued interest and a $3,100,000 exit fee
VFS Financing Agreement
~$1,411,106
Equipment financing from VFS LLC
NFS Financing Agreement
~$845,078
Equipment financing from NFS Leasing, Inc.
Total funded debt
~$15,594,184
The Term Loan Secured Parties, VFS, and NFS together constitute the "Prepetition Secured Parties." Both the plan and the cash-collateral order preserve challenge rights over the validity, priority, perfection, and extent of the Term Loan Debt and the related liens.
Cash collateral in lieu of DIP financing. Rather than obtain new-money debtor-in-possession financing, the debtors funded the cases with consensual use of cash collateral under a series of interim orders, most recently the Third Interim Cash Collateral Order. The order grants the prepetition secured parties replacement liens and superpriority claims as adequate protection, limited to any diminution in the value of their prepetition collateral after the petition date. The carve-out covers unpaid Clerk and U.S. Trustee fees, up to $50,000 for a chapter 7 trustee under section 726(b), and accrued but unpaid allowed professional fees, with a professional fee reserve funded at Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC. Use of cash collateral runs against an approved budget, and the order preserves the Committee's rights to challenge the prepetition debt and liens. The court noticed a final cash collateral hearing for July 8, 2026.
Auction Results and the Piecemeal Kiosk Sale
The debtors are selling substantially all of their assets, including separately designated Canadian assets, under section 363. The Bidding Procedures Order set a compressed calendar: a bid deadline of June 22, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. CT, an auction on June 23, a winning-bidder notice by June 24, a sale objection deadline of June 29, and a sale hearing set for July 2, 2026.
The order does not name a stalking-horse bidder and does not itself fix a break-up fee, expense reimbursement, or deposit amount; those terms are governed by the incorporated bidding procedures, and the framework contemplates one or more winning and back-up bidders under separate asset purchase agreements.
The auction did not proceed on schedule. A first adjournment moved it to June 24, 2026, and a Second Notice of Adjournment then pushed the auction to a date to be determined. The debtors then rescheduled the auction to June 29, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. CT, to be held at the New York offices of Vinson & Elkins LLP or virtually, reserving the right to further adjourn in consultation with the consultation parties. In the run-up to the auction, the debtors served First and Second Supplemental Assumption and Assignment Notices identifying additional contracts a winning bidder could designate for assumption and assignment.
The June 29 auction produced five separate buyers rather than a single going-concern purchaser. According to the Notice of Winning Bidders and Adjourned Sale Hearing, Zulie Ventures, Inc. won the Kutt assets for $250,000 and the ReadyBucks assets for $100,000; Bitcoin Bancorp, Inc. won parts inventory ($8,000), miscellaneous intellectual property ($5,000), 701 BTMs ($159,250), 1,846 BTMs with associated Floorspace Agreements ($461,500 plus assumed cure costs), BitAccess Inc. ($225,000), and the Bitcoin Depot mobile application ($75,000); CalTel, Inc. won 95 BTMs and associated Floorspace Agreements ($47,750 plus cure costs); Coin Connection, LLC won 69 BTMs ($69,000); and Kalbas, Inc., doing business as Unbank, won 120 BTMs and associated Floorspace Agreements ($73,750 plus cure costs). The same notice named Bitcoin Bancorp, CalTel, Pinz Capital Special Opportunities Fund, LP, and Kalbas as back-up bidders on various asset packages.
At a July 2, 2026 status conference, the scheduled sale hearing was converted to a status update and reset to July 8, 2026 as an evidentiary hearing, with no further bidding to occur that day. Debtors' counsel reported that the winning bids aggregated approximately $1.4 million plus close to $600,000 of assumed cure costs, covering more than 2,600 of the roughly 9,700 kiosks in the network, according to the July 2 status update. Hilco continued to market the remaining, unsold kiosks to interested buyers as the case moved toward the reset hearing.
Cross-border recognition in Canada. On May 22, 2026, the debtors commenced an ancillary proceeding under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) to protect their Canadian assets, and on June 11, 2026 the Canadian court recognized and gave effect to orders entered by the U.S. court, according to the solicitation-version notice. The recognition order aligns the Canadian estate with the U.S. sale process.
Paid in full in cash, return of collateral, or other unimpairing treatment
Unimpaired
2
Other Priority Claims
Paid in full in cash on the Effective Date
Unimpaired
3
Term Loan Claims
Pro rata share of the Term Loan Settlement Amount
Impaired
4
Equipment Financing Claims
Cash equal to collateral proceeds; deficiency takes Liquidation Trust Interests
Impaired
5
General Unsecured Claims
Pro rata share of Liquidation Trust Interests
Impaired
6
Intercompany Claims
Reinstated, set off, settled, or cancelled at the Liquidation Trustee's election
—
7
Subordinated Claims
No distribution; discharged and cancelled
0%
The Term Loan recovery in Class 3 turns on a "Term Loan Settlement Amount" that the plan leaves unquantified: it is to be agreed among the Term Loan Agent, the debtors, and the Creditors' Committee before the Effective Date, or fixed by Final Order of the court if no agreement is reached. The plan does not state estimated recovery percentages for Classes 3, 4, or 5, and distributions to the equipment lenders and general unsecured creditors depend on the value realized in the Liquidation Trust.
A Liquidation Trust, administered by a Liquidation Trustee, will hold and distribute remaining assets to holders of allowed Class 4 and Class 5 claims. The plan carries both debtor releases and third-party releases covering the restructuring, the Term Loan Facility, the equipment financing agreements, and the sale process, but excludes post-Effective-Date obligations and any acts determined by Final Order to constitute actual fraud, willful misconduct, or gross negligence.
Active creditor oversight. The U.S. Trustee appointed an Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors on May 28, 2026, with six members: Cash Cloud, Inc., WPS Kiosk Partners LLC, Loomis Armored US, LLC, OptConnect, Inc., Legacy Vending Fund I, LLC, and Bibbeo. The Committee — which includes Cash Cloud, the $18.5 million arbitration claimant — filed a Statement and Reservation of Rights on the disclosure statement and plan and shares control over the Term Loan settlement. The debtors set a combined hearing on disclosure-statement approval and plan confirmation and established the solicitation and objection schedule through the same emergency motion.
Cure Amount, Surety, and Router Disputes
The contract-assumption piece of the sale drew objections from counterparties who dispute the debtors' proposed cure amounts. Loomis Armored US, LLC, which provided armored-car and cash-logistics services to the kiosk network, objected that its cure amount is understated, asserting at least $528,321.68 in prepetition obligations owed as of the petition date. EG Retail (America), LLC, a counterparty to a master placement agreement with Bitcoin Operating, LLC, asserted a cure amount of $141,502.92 — $134,515.86 prepetition plus $6,987.96 in postpetition administrative charges — against the debtors' proposed $125,880.00.
American Alternative Insurance Corporation, a prepetition surety on license bonds that support the kiosk operations, filed a limited objection that does not oppose the sale but resists any assumption or assignment of its surety bonds or indemnity agreements without consent. AAIC argues the bonds are non-assumable financial accommodations under section 365(c)(2) and seeks protective language in the sale order, stating it will withdraw the objection if that language is included.
OptConnect Management LLC, which supplies the cellular routers embedded in the kiosk network, also filed a limited objection and reservation of rights to the sale, arguing that its routers are not property of the estates and should not transfer to buyers along with the kiosk equipment sold at auction. OptConnect noted that the auction sold only a subset of the debtors' equipment, asked for sale-order language requiring the winning bidders and debtors to cooperate in returning its routers, and reserved rights regarding any future sale of the unsold kiosks.
Key Timeline
Date
Event
2026-05-18
chapter 11 petitions filed (SDTX, Case No. 26-90528)
2026-05-22
Ancillary CCAA proceeding commenced in Ontario
2026-05-28
U.S. Trustee appoints Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
2026-06-09
Hearing before Judge Lopez; retention applications heard
2026-06-10
Bidding Procedures Order entered
2026-06-11
Canadian court recognizes U.S. orders
2026-06-18
Combined Disclosure Statement and Plan of Liquidation filed
2026-06-22
Bid deadline; voting record date
2026-06-23
Scheduled auction (adjourned twice)
2026-06-28
Schedules of Assets and Liabilities and SOFAs filed for all debtors
2026-06-29
Rescheduled auction produces five winning bidders
2026-07-01
Notice of Winning Bidders and Adjourned Sale Hearing filed
2026-07-02
Status conference; sale hearing converted and reset to July 8
2026-07-08
Adjourned sale hearing and final cash collateral hearing
2026-07-21
General claims bar date
2026-07-30
Plan/disclosure statement objection and voting deadline
2026-08-07
Scheduled combined hearing (disclosure-statement approval and confirmation)
2026-11-23
Governmental claims bar date
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the claims agent for Bitcoin Depot?
Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC serves as the claims and noticing agent. Kroll also holds the professional fee reserve funded under the Third Interim Cash Collateral Order, and the debtors' bar-date motion sets the procedures that govern the claims process.
What is the general claims bar date?
The court's order establishing bar dates set a general bar date of July 21, 2026 and a governmental bar date of November 23, 2026, superseding the earlier proposed dates in the debtors' emergency motion. That order defines which claims are subject to each deadline.
Is Bitcoin Depot reorganizing or liquidating?
The case is a liquidation. The debtors filed a Combined Disclosure Statement and Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation and are selling substantially all assets under section 363, with remaining value distributed through a Liquidation Trust rather than a reorganized going concern.
Why did Bitcoin Depot file for bankruptcy?
The debtors cited investigations by eleven state agencies, the SEC, and the FTC, an $18.5 million arbitration award against subsidiary BitAccess, and a revenue decline of about 49% in the first quarter of 2026 that followed an October 2025 Know-Your-Customer mandate.
What happens to the Term Loan claim?
Class 3 Term Loan Claims receive a pro rata share of a "Term Loan Settlement Amount" that has not been quantified. It is to be negotiated among the Term Loan Agent, the debtors, and the Creditors' Committee before the Effective Date, or set by the court if the parties do not agree.
What happened at the Bitcoin Depot bankruptcy auction?
The June 29, 2026 auction produced five separate buyers rather than a single going-concern sale: Zulie Ventures, Bitcoin Bancorp, CalTel, Coin Connection, and Kalbas (doing business as Unbank) collectively won kiosks, intellectual property, and the BitAccess and ReadyBucks businesses for bids totaling approximately $1.4 million plus nearly $600,000 in assumed cure costs, covering more than 2,600 of the roughly 9,700 kiosks. Hilco continued marketing the remaining, unsold kiosks as the sale hearing was reset to July 8, 2026.
This article was researched and written with AI assistance, using court filings, public records, and news sources. AI-generated content can contain errors. Verify all information against primary sources before relying on it. This is not legal or financial advice. Read our full disclaimer.
