Two cards, one app, a lot of missing numbers: what the CoinUp card really offers
Available in US
The CoinUp card promises something that sounds almost too convenient: a payment card you fund from a crypto balance, with cashback on every purchase and no annual or inactivity fees. Before you download the app and start the identity check, though, you should know what the card actually does, what it doesn’t say, and where the gaps are. I went through the card’s public pages, the company’s filings and the user reports that have piled up on Trustpilot, and what follows is what I found.
Conditions are current as of October 28, 2026.
Verdict
I give the CoinUp card 6.1 out of 10. That puts it in the middling range: usable in the right hands, with a few clear advantages, and a few clear reasons to hesitate before you commit.
The card earns most of its marks from reach and convenience. It is offered in 170+ countries and regions, which is wider than most competitors, and it gives you two cards from one account: a virtual Mastercard (up to five) and a physical Visa. The virtual card works with Apple Pay and Google Pay, which means you can start spending the moment your account is funded. There is no annual or inactivity fee, no VIP requirement to get the physical card, and the headline monthly limit of up to USD 1M on the physical card is generous.
The marks it loses are for transparency. The card does not publish its issuance fee, its conversion fee, its FX margin, its ATM fee, or the specific coins and networks you can use to top it up. The issuer and the licensing behind the card are not named on the public pages, which is unusual for a product that asks you to complete full identity verification. And the Trustpilot profile for the CoinUp exchange (which is the entity behind the card) sits at 2.7 out of 5 from only 12 reviews, with 66% of them at one star and themes of frozen funds and blocked accounts. That is a small sample size, but the pattern matches the kind of complaints that have hit other crypto programmes that ran into trouble.
| Criterion | Mark | Why it scores there |
|---|---|---|
| Who can get it | 8/10 | 170+ countries, but “select regions” gates the application |
| Cost | 6/10 | No annual or inactivity fee, but issuance, conversion, FX and ATM fees are not stated |
| Top-up options | 5/10 | Crypto top-up from the CoinUp account, but the supported coins and networks are not named |
| Reliability and complaints | 3/10 | Issuer and licence are not stated; exchange-side Trustpilot at 2.7/5 with frozen-funds themes |
| Everyday use | 8/10 | Virtual Mastercard up to 5, physical Visa, Apple Pay and Google Pay on the virtual |
| Total | 6.1/10 |
The card makes the most sense if you are already a CoinUp exchange user and you want a card that pays crypto cashback on your everyday spending, and you are willing to accept that several fees and limits are not in writing. If you are choosing a crypto card from scratch and you need clear fees, a named issuer and a public track record, there are better-mapped options in the alternatives section below.
Who will they give you the card
The card is available in 170+ countries and regions, which is one of the widest footprints in the category. That is the headline. The fine print is “available in select regions” and “check the app,” which means the country list on the website is not the same as the country list the app will actually let you apply from. If you are in a country where CoinUp does not hold a local licence or where sanctions or payment rules get in the way, the app is the gatekeeper.
The card is run by CoinUp Global Limited. The issuer, the banking partner and the licences that authorise the card programme are not stated on the public pages. That is a noticeable gap: most regulated card programmes name the licensed bank or e-money institution, and that name is what you check against a regulator’s register if you want to know whether the funds you load are safeguarded. With CoinUp, you have to take the “issuer not stated” at face value, at least on what the public site shows.
The card is for adults; the public pages do not state a minimum age, but standard card practice and EU rules make 18 the default for prepaid and debit cards. Citizenship and residence are recorded separately, and where you live is what the app asks for when you apply. If you are travelling or moving, the address on your account is what matters at the point of purchase.
How to get it
The signup path is short, and the company says most of it happens “in just a few minutes” in the app. You create a CoinUp account, complete KYC identity verification, then apply for the card in the app. Once approved, you top up the card and start spending.
The identity check is a real KYC flow, not a name-and-email sign-up. The public pages do not state which documents the system accepts, whether a proof of address is required, or whether the KYC has tiers that unlock higher limits, so you should expect the system to ask for whatever it decides it needs at the moment of review. If due diligence cannot be completed, the regulated institution behind the card has to refuse the relationship, which is why some applications stall or accounts are closed.
Once KYC is done, the two cards behave differently:
- Virtual Mastercard. You can have up to five of them on one account, and they are activated in the app. The virtual cards work with Apple Pay and Google Pay, so they are usable in stores, online, and in apps as soon as they are activated. The card is for online and mobile-wallet spending; ATM withdrawals are not part of the virtual card offer.
- Physical Visa. Marked “New” on the public pages. You can have one, you apply for it in the app, and the company says it is “delivered to you.” The countries it ships to, the delivery time, and the shipping cost are not stated. The physical card supports ATM withdrawals and is the card that comes with the up-to-USD-1M monthly limit.
The cards are topped up separately, which is a small detail that catches people out: a top-up to the virtual card does not fund the physical card and vice versa. If you want both funded, you top up both.
What it really costs
This is the section where the gap between marketing language and the small print is widest. The card is free to hold in the sense that there is no annual fee and no inactivity fee. The virtual card is described the same way: no annual or inactivity fees. There is no VIP requirement to get the physical card.
Beyond that, the public pages leave the most important fee questions unanswered:
- Issuance fee. Not stated for either card.
- Conversion fee (the spread or fee when crypto is converted to fiat at point of spend). Not stated.
- FX margin (the markup over the mid-market rate when you spend in a currency different from the card’s base). Not stated.
- ATM fee (the card’s own charge for cash withdrawal, on top of any ATM operator fee). Not stated.
- Currency. The card’s base currency is not stated.
- Virtual card limits. Not stated; only the physical card’s “up to USD 1M monthly limit” is given.
What this means in practice: the card is free to keep, but the cost of a single transaction can vary depending on which crypto you fund it with, which network you use to top it up, and what currency you spend in. You will not know the exact cost until the transaction posts or until you ask support. That is not a position you want to be in if you are budgeting carefully.
Fee and limit overview
| Fee or limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Virtual card issuance | Not stated |
| Physical card issuance | Not stated |
| Annual fee | None (virtual and physical) |
| Inactivity fee | None (virtual and physical) |
| VIP requirement | None (physical) |
| Conversion fee | Not stated |
| FX margin | Not stated |
| ATM fee (physical only) | Not stated |
| Currency | Not stated |
| Virtual card limits | Not stated |
| Physical card monthly limit | Up to USD 1M |
Three everyday payments, worked through
The clearest way to see how the missing numbers play out is to walk through three real-world transactions. I am not adding up fees, because the card does not publish them. What I am showing is which fees can apply to each payment, so you know what to look for on the receipt.
Buying a coffee with Apple Pay, virtual card, funded from USDT.
You tap the card at the café. Because the merchant is in your card’s base currency, no FX conversion applies. Behind the scenes, the card converts USDT to the spend currency at the card’s conversion rate, and the card’s conversion fee (which is not stated) is taken at that moment. Network fees do not apply to the spend itself, but they did apply when you sent USDT to the card.
Booking a hotel abroad with the physical card.
The hotel charges in a foreign currency. Your card converts USDT to the foreign currency at the card’s rate, with the card’s FX margin (not stated) on top. The physical card’s monthly limit of up to USD 1M is the ceiling; the actual spend limit for a new cardholder is lower and is not stated.
Cash withdrawal at an ATM, physical card, foreign currency.
The ATM operator may charge its own fee, and your card charges its own ATM fee (not stated). The cash is dispensed in the local currency, and the card applies its FX margin (not stated) on top of the network rate. ATM withdrawals are on the physical card only; the virtual card does not support them.
If any of these fees matter to you, the practical move is to test with a small transaction first and read the receipt in the app, rather than rely on what the website does not say.
How to top it up
Top-up works the same way for both cards, and the public pages are short on detail. The flow is: transfer crypto from your CoinUp account to the CoinUp Card, and the card is “ready to use instantly”.
What the public pages do not name is the most important part of the top-up: which coins you can send, and which networks you can send them on. “Crypto” is the only word used. In practice, that means you have to open the app, look at the deposit screen for the card, and check the coin and network list the app shows you at that moment. If the list is short, your top-up options are short. If you send a coin the card does not support, or send a supported coin on a network the card does not support, the deposit may be lost or stuck in manual support recovery, and blockchain transfers are irreversible.
A few things to keep in mind, because they apply to the category rather than to this card alone:
- Stablecoins like USDT and USDC are the most common funding assets, but they are not a single asset: USDT exists on several blockchains, and USDC is listed by Circle as natively supported on 38 networks. Circle stopped supporting USDC on Tron in 2024, so “USDC over TRC20” is no longer a native option.
- On Ethereum, ERC-20 token transfers pay gas in ETH. If you are sending USDT but your sending wallet has no ETH, the transaction will not go through.
- A transfer on the wrong network is the most common way users lose funds. The address looks right, the coin looks right, the network is wrong, and the funds are not recoverable.
- Tether says it has disabled tokens in wallets on the OFAC sanctions list and has frozen funds tied to illicit activity, so a stablecoin transfer is not censorship-proof.
Minimum top-up amounts, top-up fees, and whether there is a top-up cooldown are not stated. The card is funded from the CoinUp account, which means you first need a CoinUp account balance, and that balance is topped up by buying crypto or by depositing it from another wallet.
Paying with it every day
In daily use, the CoinUp card behaves like a prepaid card. Crypto is converted to a spendable balance, and the card spends only that balance. The card cannot overdraw, and the cashback is paid in crypto on every purchase. The rate and the payout coin are not stated, so the cashback is a known unknown: it is real, but you cannot predict its value in your local currency until it lands.
The virtual card is the workhorse. Up to five of them on one account, each activated in the app, each tokenised into Apple Pay and Google Pay for phone and watch payments. Online checkout works the same way as any other Visa or Mastercard, with 3-D Secure challenges when the issuer decides the transaction needs them. Address Verification Service (AVS) is mainly a US, Canada and UK tool, and is generally unavailable for foreign-issued cards, which can cause some online merchants to decline; this is a category effect, not a CoinUp-specific issue.
The physical card adds ATM access and the higher monthly limit. It also has real-time alerts and PIN verification, and the card settings (freeze, limit, online toggle) are managed in the CoinUp app. If you freeze the card in the app, the freeze applies to the card number; a tokenised number in Apple Pay or Google Pay is controlled separately and may keep working until you also remove the card from the wallet.
The exchange app itself, “CoinUp.io-Buy Crypto,Eth,DOGE” on the App Store, sits at 4.57 from 28 ratings as of the read date 2026-10-22, version 100037 dated 2026-07-04. That is the exchange app, not a card-specific app, and 28 ratings is a small sample. There is no separate card app listed in the public pages.
Two things to watch for in everyday use, because they are the most common sources of friction:
- Holds on declined authorisations. A declined transaction can leave a hold on the balance for several days (typically up to 7). If a card looks short on funds after a failed online payment, this is often why.
- Tokenisation controls. A tokenised card number in a mobile wallet can be restricted by the issuer (for example, blocked from magnetic-stripe fallback or from website use). The setting lives in the app, not in the wallet.
What can go wrong
The card’s public pages are quiet on the hard questions. There is no named issuer, no licence number, no published conversion or FX margin, no published ATM fee, and no public service-level commitment. That is where the risk lives.
Company and licensing
CoinUp Global Limited is the entity behind the card. The footer of the site lists COINUP LIMITED 20211565064, which is a Hong Kong company number. The issuer and the licences are not stated, which means a cardholder cannot, on the public record, confirm whether the funds loaded onto the card are held in a segregated account by a regulated bank or e-money institution, or whether the funds sit on the CoinUp platform balance. That distinction matters at the moment a programme runs into trouble.
User reports on the exchange
The Trustpilot profile for CoinUp’s exchange (not the card specifically) sits at 2.7 out of 5 from 12 reviews as of 2026-10-21, with 66% of them at one star. The sample is small, but the themes repeat: frozen funds, blocked accounts, scripted support answers. Specific reports include:
- An unpaid refund and a broken listing agreement, August–September 2026.
- USDT frozen for eight days with scripted support responses, July 2026.
- Accounts blocked after profitable trades, July–August 2025.
- A positive pattern in February–March 2026 reviews: fast KYC and an easy interface.
The card programme shares the brand and the platform with the exchange, which is why these reports are relevant. If the platform’s account block list grows, cardholders on the same platform are exposed to the same kind of friction.
Support and dispute handling
The public site lists a Help Center, Contact Us, Feedback, official Telegram channels (Chinese and International) and an X account. What the site does not say is what happens when a cardholder disputes a transaction. Chargeback rights, the reason codes the issuer uses, and the time the issuer takes to respond are not stated. For a regulated card, chargeback rules are usually set by the card network and the issuer’s banking licence; for this card, neither the network-side rules nor the issuer-side rules are visible on the public page.
Programme closure risk
Card programmes can be wound down. The category has a track record here: Visa said in November 2022 that it had “terminated our global agreements with FTX”, and the FTX US debit card programme was wound down by its issuer. WaveCrest, a Visa card issuer that supplied several crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018 and every WaveCrest-issued Visa programme closed. Programme closures typically follow a pattern: a notice period, a stop on new loads, a stop on spending, then a request to withdraw remaining balances. If you keep a balance on the card, that is your exit window.
What to take instead
Three alternatives come up most often when readers compare the CoinUp card. I have laid them out below with the same “what the public pages actually say” approach, so the gaps are visible.
Young Card
- Score: 5.7/10
- The card’s countries, fees, issuance and top-up coins are not stated on the public pages.
- The cashback is paid in YNG tokens, with the rate set by the user’s Club tier: 0.1% at Essential, 1.8% at Gold, 3.6% at Platinum. The Bronze and Silver rates are not stated.
MSX
- Score: 6.4/10
- The card’s countries, fees, issuance and top-up coins are not stated on the public pages that were available at the read date.
- The cashback structure is also not stated on those pages.
Bybit Card
- Score: 6.0/10
- Card regions listed in the official help center: Argentina, AIFC (Kazakhstan), Georgia, Kazakhstan, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Asia Pacific. The application asks for Country of Residence; if your country is not supported, Bybit says it “will register your interest”. The card page is explicit: “This product is not meant for European Economic Area customers. All European Economic Area customer participation is strictly prohibited.” Bybit’s fiat-service restricted list (deposits, withdrawals, One-Click Buy; not the card as such) includes Belarus, Russian Federation, Serbia, China, United States, and notes that “Russian users can only make RUB transaction in Fiat”. No card-specific rule on Russian or Belarusian citizens was found, and the card’s currency “depends on the country of your Advanced Identity Verification”.
- The card has both virtual and physical forms. A virtual card is obtained first; the physical card is not available in Peru; rollouts have happened in phases. The networks are: Argentina Mastercard prepaid; AIFC, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Australia, Mexico “Mastercard credit card”; Brazil, Peru Visa prepaid; Asia Pacific Visa credit. Card fiat currency: USD for AIFC, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Australia, Asia Pacific; ARS in Argentina; MXN in Mexico; BRL in Brazil; PEN or USD in Peru. Validity: 3 years in AIFC, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Asia Pacific and Australia; 6 years in Argentina; 5 years in Brazil, Mexico and Peru.
- Virtual card issuance is free in all regions “until further notice”; no annual or cancellation fee is listed with a value. Physical card issuance or replacement: 29.99 USD in Australia; 5 USD/USDT in Argentina; 29,99 USDT in Georgia; 29,99 USDT in Kazakhstan (AIFC); 5 USDT in Asia Pacific; free in Brazil and Mexico; VIPs holding an Australia, Kazakhstan (AIFC), Georgia or Asia Pacific physical card pay no issuance or replacement fee. The cards page says “Auto interest, no annual fees”.
- Crypto conversion fee 0.9% over the One-Click Sell rate (Australia, Asia Pacific, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Mexico), 0.5% in Argentina, not supported in Peru. FX fee 2% on top of the network rate (Australia, Asia Pacific, Georgia, Mexico); Kazakhstan (AIFC) 2% “International Fee” on purchases outside Kazakhstan even in USD; Argentina 7%; Brazil 1.5%; Peru 1%. FX padding 0% in the Australia group and Mexico, 5% in Argentina, 1% in Brazil, with the excess refunded. Argentina taxes: VAT 21% on foreign digital services, 30% tax on foreign transactions, provincial gross-income tax 1%–13.2%.
- The card has no balance of its own; it draws on the Funding Account and the Flexible Easy Earn balance, fiat first. If fiat is insufficient, crypto is sold at the “Bybit One-Click Sell exchange rate plus a Bybit Card crypto conversion fee”. Supported cryptos: BTC, ETH, XRP, USDT, USDC, GRAM. Default priority is USDT > USDC > GRAM > BTC > ETH > XRP, reorderable in the Card Dashboard. The Funding Account is topped up with Buy Crypto or by depositing crypto from other wallets.
- From 2026-10-05 10:00 UTC only crypto-funded transactions earn points or cashback; fiat-funded spending does not. Tiers: Base 2.00%, 5 USD cap, 0 spend to unlock; Beta 2%, 50 USD, 500 USD; Alpha 4%, 150 USD, 3,500 USD; Apex 6%, 250 USD, 9,500 USD; Omega 8%, 400 USD, 12,500 USD; Infinite 10%, 600 USD, 25,000 USD. Points are pending 4 calendar days; cashback in USDT = points × 0.002; Auto Cashback must be on. Pay Later instalment bonus extra 1%. Welcome offer: 10% cashback up to 110 USDT in the first 30 days; “100% cashback on must-have subscriptions” for VIPs and Alpha and above; referral 20 USDT / 10 USDT.
How the three compare
| Card | Score | Countries named | Cashback in | Notable gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CoinUp | 6.1/10 | 170+ (app gates) | Crypto (coin not stated) | Issuer, fees, coins, networks not stated |
| Young Card | 5.7/10 | Not stated | YNG token, by tier | Card fees and countries not stated |
| MSX | 6.4/10 | Not stated | Not stated | Card fees and countries not stated |
| Bybit Card | 6.0/10 | 9 named regions, EEA excluded | USDT, by tier and spend | Conversion and FX fees are published, but the fiat list excludes the EEA |
The honest reading is that the Bybit card is the most fully documented of the four on fees, even if its country list is narrower and the EEA is explicitly out. The CoinUp card’s reach is its strongest argument; its weakest is the fee silence.
Who I would recommend it to
I would recommend the CoinUp card to readers who are already CoinUp exchange users, who already hold USDT or another stablecoin on the platform, and who want a card that pays crypto cashback on everyday spending. If you are that person, the card’s convenience is real: virtual cards in Apple Pay, a physical card for ATM and high-limit spend, no annual or inactivity fee, and one app to manage both. The trade-off you are accepting is the missing numbers: you will not know the conversion fee, the FX margin or the ATM fee until you transact, and the issuer behind the card is not named on the public pages.
I would not recommend it to readers who are choosing a crypto card from scratch, who need a named issuer they can look up on a regulator’s register, who need every fee in writing before they transact, or who are not in a “select region” the app will accept. The 170+ country headline is wide, but the actual application gate is the app, and the exchange-side Trustpilot profile is the kind of signal that should make a new user pause.
A practical first step, if you are in the “already a CoinUp user” group: apply for the virtual card, fund it with a small amount, and run a low-value test transaction in your home currency and a low-value foreign-currency transaction. Read the receipts in the app. Only then decide whether the cashback is worth the missing fee schedule.
Frequently asked questions
What is the CoinUp card?
The CoinUp card is a payment card product from CoinUp Global Limited, offered as a virtual Mastercard (up to five per account) and a physical Visa. It is funded from a crypto balance held in a CoinUp account, and pays crypto cashback on every purchase.
How does the CoinUp card work?
You transfer crypto from your CoinUp account to the card, and the card is “ready to use instantly”. At the point of spend, the card converts the crypto to the merchant’s currency at the card’s rate, and the card’s cashback is paid back in crypto.
Is CoinUp a bank?
CoinUp is not described as a bank on its public pages. The entity named is CoinUp Global Limited, and the issuer behind the card is not stated. A bank or licensed e-money institution is typically the actual issuer of a card programme; for the CoinUp card, that name is not in the public record.
Who owns CoinUp?
The public pages name CoinUp Global Limited and list COINUP LIMITED 20211565064 in the site footer, a Hong Kong company number. Beneficial ownership is not stated.
Is the CoinUp card available in my country?
The card is offered in 170+ countries and regions, but the application gate is the app, and the public pages say “available in select regions. Check the app.” The most reliable test is to download the app, complete the KYC flow, and see whether the card application is unlocked for your country of residence.
How do I get the CoinUp card?
Create a CoinUp account, complete the KYC identity check, then apply for the card in the app. The virtual card activates in the app; the physical card is applied for in the app and “delivered to you”, with delivery country, time and cost not stated.
Does the CoinUp card require KYC?
Yes. KYC identity verification is part of the signup flow, and the public pages say it takes “just a few minutes” in the app. The specific documents, tiered limits and PEP/sanctions screening are not stated on the public pages.
How do I top up the CoinUp card?
Transfer crypto from your CoinUp account to the CoinUp Card. The card is “ready to use instantly”. The supported coins and networks are not named on the public pages, so the deposit screen in the app is the source of truth at the moment of top-up. Minimums, fees and cooldowns are not stated.
Can I add the CoinUp card to Apple Wallet or Google Pay?
The virtual card supports Apple Pay and Google Pay. The physical card’s mobile-wallet support is not stated on the public pages, and the controls (freeze, limit, online toggle) are managed in the CoinUp app.
Is the CoinUp card safe?
The card adds standard safeguards on the physical card (real-time alerts, PIN verification, app-based card management) and tokenised mobile-wallet payments on the virtual card. The parts that are not stated are the issuer, the licence, the fee schedule, and the dispute-resolution process, which is the layer that matters when something goes wrong. The exchange-side Trustpilot profile is at 2.7/5 with themes of frozen funds; the card and the exchange share the platform, so the pattern is worth weighing.
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