How to get a crypto card: requirements, steps and what it costs to start

What do you need before you start?

Three things: a valid passport, crypto to fund the card, and a device with a browser or Telegram.

A passport that has not expired. KYC is required for every card. It is a light identity check with your passport, carried out by the card issuer partner. The cards run through licensed BIN sponsors, and anti-money-laundering rules require them to know who holds each card.

Crypto on a supported network. You can top up with any crypto: for example, USDT over ERC-20, TRC-20, BEP-20, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism or Avalanche, Bitcoin, and others. BTC, ETH, SOL and other coins are converted to USDT when the deposit is credited, because the card balance is kept in USDT. If you are unsure which network to send on, the comparison of TRC-20, ERC-20 and BEP-20 for card top-ups goes through fees and the mistakes that lose funds.

A browser or Telegram. Everything runs in the web app at app.excards.io or in the Telegram mini-app @ex_cards_bot.

Not on the list: a local bank account, a credit history, proof of salary. If the mechanics of spending crypto through Visa or Mastercard are still new to you, start with how a crypto card works.

How to apply for a crypto card, step by step

The application takes four steps, and the only one that waits on someone else is verification.

1. Sign up at app.excards.io or open @ex_cards_bot in Telegram.
2. Verify your identity. Upload your passport and enter your details exactly as they appear in the document. The issuer partner checks the document and screens the applicant against the UN, EU, OFAC, UK HMT and Swiss SECO sanctions lists.
3. Choose a card and top up. Pick Visa Universe, Visa E-commerce or Mastercard Business and pay the card price when the card is issued in the app. After that, make a first top-up of at least 10 USDT.
4. Start using it. The virtual card appears in your account within 10 minutes after verification. Copy the card details for online payments, or add the card to your phone wallet using Apple's Apple Pay setup guide or Google's instructions for adding a card to Google Wallet.

Step 4 matters more than it looks. Once the card is in Apple Pay or Google Pay, Visa E-commerce and Mastercard Business can pay at a contactless terminal in a shop, not only online.

What does it cost to start?

The entry cost is the card price, paid once, plus a first top-up of at least 10 USDT that stays on your balance as spending money. Every top-up carries a fee: 2% on Visa Universe, 3.5% on Visa E-commerce and Mastercard Business. There is no monthly fee, no inactivity fee and no maintenance fee.

Rates as of October 10, 2026

A worked example. You pick Visa E-commerce: the card price of 35 USDT is charged once. You then top up 100 USDT, the 3.5% fee is taken, and 96.50 USDT lands on the card. Every later top-up follows the same math.

Two costs sit outside this table. Network gas for sending USDT to the deposit address is paid to the blockchain network, not to ExCards. And if a merchant charges in a currency other than USD, the issuer converts at its rate, which can include a markup of up to 2% over the interbank rate. The card price, top-up fees and authorization fees are non-refundable; the full list is on the fees disclosure page. What regular spending adds up to, with FX and authorizations included, is broken down on the page about the real cost of a crypto debit card.

Which card should be your first?

Pick by how you spend, not by the price difference.

Visa Universe fits everyday spending with the lowest top-up fee, 2%, and Apple Pay and Google Pay out of the box. One purchase can be up to $1,000,000, with $3,000,000 a day and $3,000,000 a month. Each authorization is $0.50. Offline POS payments are not available on it.

Visa E-commerce fits everyday spending: subscriptions, AI tools, SaaS, marketplaces, groceries through Apple Pay or Google Pay. It is the only one of the three with no daily or monthly cap, and one purchase can be up to $20,000. Purchases from $1 carry no authorization fee; a 3D Secure check adds $0.03, and a purchase under $1 costs $0.10.

Mastercard Business fits large single payments and business volume: contractors, bigger invoices, company-level spending. One transaction can reach $250,000, with $500,000 a day and $1,000,000 a month. Each authorization is a flat $0.50, which is noticeable on a coffee and irrelevant on a $5,000 payment.

You do not have to choose forever. All three cards can be held at once and share one wallet. The side-by-side view is on the card comparison page.

Why can verification take longer?

Usually because the issuer partner cannot match the document to the application: a blurred or cropped passport photo, an expired passport, or a name or date of birth typed differently from the document. These are fixed by resubmitting a clear photo of a valid passport and checking the details letter by letter. If the country of residence is under sanctions, the application is declined rather than delayed. The full list of what fails a check, and what data is collected, is in our explainer on how card verification works.

Who cannot get a card?

Residents of countries under comprehensive sanctions. Cards cannot be issued to, or used inside, jurisdictions covered by UN, EU, US OFAC, UK HMT or Swiss SECO sanctions. Every application is screened at issuance, and every transaction is screened too.

The exact list follows the issuer's compliance program and changes when sanctions regimes change, so the current version lives on our geo restrictions page. For the source lists, see OFAC's sanctions programs by country and the EU's official Sanctions Map. One more point: you have to state your real country of residence at signup, and using a VPN to hide the country you pay from can lead to the card being closed.

You have the card. How do you keep costs down?

Treat the top-up as the main cost lever, because the fee (2% on Visa Universe, 3.5% on the other two) applies to every top-up.

Check the network twice before you send: funds sent on the wrong network can be lost. Top up less often and in larger amounts if gas on your network is noticeable. Keep on the card roughly what you plan to spend in the coming weeks: the card balance is held by the issuer partner, while your main wallet stays under your control until you move funds. Pay in USD where a merchant offers the choice, to avoid the FX markup of up to 2%.

Declines cost money too. On Visa E-commerce, a $0.80 surcharge applies if more than 10% of the card's payments are declined, so check the balance before a large purchase instead of retrying. No card guarantees that every payment goes through: approval is decided by the merchant and card processing, so keep a backup payment method.

People who earn in crypto or live abroad without a local bank can run most of their month on this card: rent where the landlord takes cards, groceries through Apple Pay, subscriptions, travel bookings. For that, Visa E-commerce is the natural choice, since it has no daily or monthly cap. Plan cash separately: there is no ATM withdrawal.

Get your card

How we checked this

Every product number on this page was checked against the public fees disclosure (/fees.html), the card pages and the geo restrictions page on 10 October 2026. External links were opened and checked on the same date. Page updated: 10 October 2026.

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