The original article is posted on CoinMarketCap.
Cryptocurrency cards have emerged as a pivotal bridge between the digital asset ecosystem and the everyday economy. The relevance lies in addressing a critical gap in crypto adoption: utility.
While centralized exchanges (CEXs) primarily focus on onboarding—helping users buy, store, and manage crypto—the next big question is what to do with these assets when it comes time to spend them.
Cryptocurrency cards answer this by enabling users to seamlessly convert their holdings into spendable currency for goods and services.
With widespread competition in the realm, the ultimate question comes into play: which card will cover your utility needs at its best?
This report dives deep into the most prominent options in the market to assess the perks and strengths of each of them.
To receive a deeper understanding of crypto cards phenomena, Kseniia Zhytomyrska, Trustee co-founder and CTO, and Samira Abdulova, Head of Global Corporate Communications at WhiteBIT, exclusively shared their pieces of insight.
Let’s dive in.
Why Cryptocurrency Cards Matter
The value proposition of these cards is twofold: direct crypto onramp/offramp capabilities and user-friendly convenience. They simplify the once-complex process of accessing fiat liquidity from crypto holdings, delivering near-instant conversions. This quickness is essential in a world where timing and ease-of-use define customer loyalty.
Moreover, cryptocurrency cards are transforming the adoption curve. Previously, the logic was "general to specific"—an ambitious push to replace or integrate crypto with specialized payment infrastructures. Today, these cards are redefining adoption as "specific to general," leveraging existing retail payment systems like Visa and Mastercard to offer a direct, ready-to-use solution.
This paradigm shift lowers barriers, making crypto spendable in a world already equipped for traditional payments. The result? Broader adoption, faster integration, and a stronger case for cryptocurrency as a viable everyday asset.
Contenders List
Based on a global user appeal, a list of 8 contenders is formed:
Trustee – a payment card of Ukrainian origin that allows users to make payments at retail outlets, seamlessly converting crypto to fiat at the time of purchase.
Revolut crypto card – a product by one of the largest European neobanks, enabling users to switch between crypto and fiat purchases for everyday spending.
Binance Visa – a cryptocurrency debit card by the largest digital assets exchange.
WhiteBIT Nova – newly-released crypto debit card by the largest European exchange, offering up to 10% cashback and seamless integration with digital wallets like Apple Pay.
Coinbase Card – a Visa debit card by the first and only publicly-listed cryptocurrency exchange of the U.S. origin.
Nexo Card – a unique dual-mode card that allows users to spend their digital assets without selling them, providing access to cryptocurrency-powered liquidity across millions of merchant sites worldwide.
Bybit Card – a Mastercard debit card by one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges globally.
Crypto.com Visa – a prepaid card by a popular cryptocurrency exchange.
Each of these cards represents a unique approach to bridging the gap between digital assets and everyday spending, making the once-futuristic concept of paying with crypto as simple as swiping a regular card.
Breaking Down The Evaluation Scope
To address a balanced perspective that captures both the financial and functional aspects of choosing a card, a following spectre of criteria is coined:
Cashback, its availability and rates
Supported assets, their number and diversity
Fees: opening, monthly, and transactional
Target region, in which a certain cards operates
Unique features that make the product stand out
All factors combined will help you gain a more clear understanding of which cards fit best your financial goals, regional requirements, and preferences.
Insights:
The distinct differences between cards can be spotted right at first peek, specifically – while researching the cashback options.
In this category, Bybit Card and WhiteBIT Nova obviously lead the pack, both offering up to 10% cashback, while Binance Visa offers 8% (limited to BNB), and Crypto.com Visa provides scalable rewards depending on CRO stakes. By contrast, Revolut restricts cashback to premium subscribers, and Trustee offers none so far.
In terms of available assets’ variety, Revolut is an absolute winner, supporting the most assets (180+). It is followed by Crypto.com Visa with over 40 options and Revolut (30+ assets), while Binance’s card offer ca. 10 cryptocurrencies to choose from.
Crucially, a wide majority of cards, such as Binance Visa, Nexo, and Bybit Card offer zero fees. Trustee commissions its users with a tolerant 1%, while both Revolut and Coinbase Card charge equal 2.5%. Crypto.com Visa’s fees vary by tier.
Coverage is the decisive factor of divergence. Nexo and Crypto.com Cards are the only ones providing global coverage. Trustee, Nova, and Coinbase Card focus on European markets, with the latter offering its services for the U.S. users as well.
Crucially, each card offers tailored perks, including cashback or points-based rewards. But the uniqueness of each product is a matter of a deeper scope.
“Our (WhiteBIT Nova’s) implementation adds no overhead to Visa’s transaction processing speeds, meaning users benefit from the full TPS capabilities of Visa’s network,” highlights Samira Abdulova, WhiteBIT’s Head of Global Corporate Communications, exclusively for the article. “Transactions are as fast as any traditional card, with no delays caused by crypto-specific features”.
Operational swiftness is an integral characteristic of a crypto card that primarily defines its user-experience’s quality. Hence, it is achieved differently across the industry.
“The microservice architecture with multi-layer deployment allows you to keep the pace of updates constantly, without stopping card transactions or user operations for a moment,” says Kseniia Zhytomyrska, co-founder and CTO at Trustee, referring to their card. “Data sharding and server backups, processing audits, and constant control over all third-party service providers are must-haves for any fintech product. Especially if it is a crypto product, where it may be impossible to “reverse” transactions.”
What distinguishes such architecture is also a technical sustainability to the Internet connection malfunctions, states Zhytomyrska.
“The chosen architecture with an open outer layer but completely closed and overlapping internal processes proved to be reliable and resilient to failures, even during blackouts – users were able to log into the application and perform operations, because we immediately enabled a backup login channel via Telegram.”
The accessibility proves to be a game-changer in this regard. Crucially, what proves the success of a cards is their availability’s simplicity.
“The card (WhiteBIT Nova) also eliminates common barriers to entry: no fees for issuance, activation, or maintenance,” says Samira Abdulova.
In a nutshell:
What sets crypto cards apart from the other products is that they deliver a factual value.
As products, they enrich crypto with a direct, straightforward utility that many have sought in many products and services, but could not achieve.
As phenomenons, they expand Web3 to a real-life dimension, opening doors for many more cutting-edge solutions to leave the papers.
But crucially, they underline the tendency between every technology ever existed: one is only valuable when it aids ultimate people needs.
