The Brazilian crypto card that pays you back in sats — and hides most of its fee table

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

Bipa is a Brazilian fintech that issues a Mastercard you fund from crypto or reais, pays you a percentage of every card purchase back in Bitcoin, and hands you a physical card only on its two priciest plans. On paper it is a neat fit for one specific person: someone living in Brazil who already thinks in Bitcoin, wants a normal-looking payment card, and does not mind their provider not publishing most of the numbers. I scored it 5.9 out of 10 — a card that is genuinely better than average in two places and frustratingly untransparent in five others.

The conditions described here are current as of October 28, 2026.

That score is not a punishment for being a small company. It is mostly a statement about how much I could not find. Bipa’s public pages list plan fees, cashback rates, and a short list of top-up methods. They do not list the foreign exchange rate markup, the ATM fee, the physical card issue fee on the entry plans, the credit limit, or how the card is enabled inside a mobile wallet. When the thing you are about to pay with daily hides its own fees, your effective cost is unknowable before you sign up — and that is the single most important thing in this review.

Let me take you through what I checked, in the order I checked it: who gets the card, how you get it, what it costs, how you fill it, how it behaves day to day, what can go wrong, and who I would point it at.

Who it suits, and who it does not

The card scores 5.9 out of 10 overall. Broken into the five things that actually decide whether a card is useful to you, here is where it lands and why.

Who this suits: Brazilian residents who want Bitcoin cashback in reais, and who treat a crypto balance as a spending source rather than as something to hold for years. If your money already sits in USDT or Bitcoin, being paid a percentage of every supermarket purchase back in satoshis is a real, measurable benefit, and Bipa’s cashback ladder — 0.5% to 1.5% depending on plan — is one of the better ones among cards in this category.

Who it does not suit: anyone who needs to know the exchange rate markup before their first purchase, anyone who lives outside Brazil and hopes a Brazilian-issued card will simply work for them, and anyone who wants Apple Pay or Google Pay. If you are reading this from outside Brazil, the short answer is that Bipa’s eligibility conditions are not stated publicly, the plans are priced in reais, and the credit side runs on Brazilian risk criteria. That combination tells you the product was built for one market. Whether it can be opened from your address is not something the company’s public pages answer.

Who will they give you the card

This is the weakest part of the picture, and it is worth being blunt about it: the card’s own public pages do not state who is eligible.

What they do tell you is directional. Bipa is a Brazilian company. The plans are priced in Brazilian reais. The credit card is based on Brazilian risk criteria. That is enough to conclude the product is designed for residents of Brazil — but not enough to conclude anything about citizenship, documentation requirements, proof of address, or whether a non-resident with a Brazilian address could apply.

The card terms are the document that would settle this. Bipa says card issuance, use, guarantee and disputes are governed “exclusively pelos Termos do Cartão” — exclusively by the Card Terms — and I did not read that document. So what I can tell you is what the marketing pages say, and where they stop.

One thing the pages do say clearly is that the applicant must be an adult individual, and that credit limit approval depends on a prior analysis rather than on your word for it. If you have applied before and been declined, that is a decision made somewhere behind a document I did not read.

If your situation is anything other than straightforwardly “I live in Brazil”, the honest advice is to ask support directly before you spend an afternoon on the application. Contact details are in the support section further down.

How to get it

The application itself looks short. At sign-up you send a selfie and a document. That is the entire stated verification step.

What happens after that is where the uncertainty starts, and there are three separate things the page does not tell you:

• The document list. It does not say which documents are accepted — passport, national ID, driving licence, proof of address, or some combination.
• The processing time. No figure is given for how long verification takes.
• The verification levels. The page speaks of levels without describing what distinguishes them or what each unlocks.

Two things are stated and matter more than the omissions. First, Bipa may request updated registration data periodically — so this is not a one-and-done check, and you will need to keep your details current. Second, Stark Bank and Bipa may verify your data at any time, and false information can lead to suspension and cancellation of the card. That is a real risk with real consequences, and it means you should type your details exactly as they appear on your documents rather than tidying them up.

Here is what you actually end up with. Bipa offers two card products and four tiers, and the naming is where people get confused:

The network is Mastercard. Bipa issues a prepaid card and a credit card (Bipa Crédito), and the credit card can buy Bitcoin on credit in up to 3 installments. The currency is the real, plans are priced in reais, and a virtual card exists whose prepaid limit can be “enabled in crypto”.

Delivery of the physical card: free on Pro and Max, fee on Free and Plus with the amount not stated, and the delivery time is given only as “per the periods informed by support channels” — which means you have to ask. A Brazilian delivery address is implied throughout.

And the standing rule that governs all of it: the card terms, which I did not read, are what actually decide these questions. Treat the summary above as orientation, not as the contract.

Fees: what it really costs

Here is every cost figure and limit the public pages disclose, in one place. Then I will tell you what is missing, because on this card the gaps matter as much as the numbers.

Now the honest reading of that table. Four of the columns that matter most to a daily spender are blank. The card lists plan fees and crypto trading fees; it does not list a card FX rate or a conversion fee. So when I say “6 out of 10 for cost”, I am scoring a plan-fee ladder that is transparent and cheap at the bottom, against an unquantifiable transaction cost.

Three everyday payments, and what applies to each:

A R$40 lunch in São Paulo. This is the case the card is built for. You pay 40 reais, and on Plus through Max you get between R$0.20 and R$0.60 back in Bitcoin depending on plan. No conversion, no FX, no cross-border anything. This is the payment where Bipa is clearly better than most of its category.

A R$120 online subscription in dollars. Here the card goes quiet. Foreign use is limited to travel and personal expenses, and in credit mode only. The FX rate may be higher or lower than the Central Bank of Brazil’s average rate, and no markup percentage is published. The IOF rate is not named in the card terms. You are therefore asked to accept an unknown spread on every such purchase.

A cash machine withdrawal. ATM limits may be imposed daily, weekly or monthly. The fee follows the Tabela de Tarifas and your plan, and neither amount is listed. This is a payment type I would not rely on Bipa for without asking support first.

Two other cost mechanics worth knowing. Increasing your credit limit requires an extra deposit and enabling the guarantee. And merchants may set their own minimum and maximum amounts, so a card limit that looks generous can still be refused at the till by a shop’s own policy.

On the free tiers, note the trap shape: Free and Plus charge you for the physical card, which is precisely what makes the card usable. Pro and Max make it free and charge R$49.90 or R$99.90 a month instead, waived by usage. If you are going to use the card at all, the higher tiers are the ones where the cost is at least visible.

How to Top up the card

Top-up is where Bipa scores highest, at 8 out of 10, and it is the part of the product I would defend most warmly.

That list is genuinely broad for a Brazilian card. Pix alone puts it ahead of cards that force you through a foreign exchange desk first. Lightning support matters if you hold small amounts.

Now the detail that will cost you money if you miss it, and it is the kind of detail that separates a good card from a bad one. USDT can arrive on Ethereum (ERC-20) or Polygon only. Solana is not accepted. If you hold USDT on Solana — a very common choice, because Solana transfers are cheap and fast — and you send it there anyway, that deposit does not arrive. Blockchain transfers are irreversible by design: the network cannot reverse them or freeze them, and recovery means a support ticket with no guarantee of success. Check the network before you press send, every time.

The prepaid card’s limit can be enabled in crypto, with settlement governed by clause 5.9 of the Card Terms. The credit card is backed by reais held as collateral or guarantee. Plan fees are debited from the prepaid limit or from your reais balance.

Which coins and networks you can use for a specific deposit is not stated page by page — the list above is what the pages show, and the Card Terms are the authority.

Two things about cashing out and closing, which I flag because they are the exits people never check until they need them. There is a guide on how to withdraw or transfer USDT, and a US$100,000 limit on international crypto transfers; I read the titles only, not the contents. And on cancellation, Bipa may deduct amounts owed from the available balance. Cancelling the card does not cancel the plan — meaning the monthly fee can keep running. There is no plan or card cancellation fee, which is a genuinely good detail, but the plan still exists.

Paying with it every day

Day-to-day function scores 7 out of 10. Mastercard, both a prepaid card and a credit card, virtual and physical. That is the range most people expect from a card in this category and most competitors do not offer both under one roof.

Digital wallets — read this one carefully. The card “may be enabled in digital wallets according to eligibility”. Apple Pay and Google Pay are not named. If adding the card to your phone’s wallet is a requirement rather than a nicety, you must ask. Do not assume it works; do not assume it doesn’t. The page does not settle it.

Transactions that get declined for no visible reason. Some transactions classified as MoneySend by the processor are blocked. There is no published list of blocked merchant category codes. A merchant category code is the four-digit number that classifies a business, assigned when it starts accepting cards, and an issuer can block categories by policy rather than by law. So if a payment of yours fails, this is one possible explanation, and you will not be able to look up which categories are affected.

The rewards, and the timing. Satsback is paid in Bitcoin on card purchases, with crypto bought with the card excluded. Free 0%, Plus 0.5%, Pro 1%, Max 1.5%. There is a timing rule worth internalising: credit-card rewards post after the invoice is paid, prepaid rewards after settlement. So the cashback lands later on one product than the other.

There is a second, separate reward that is easy to mistake for the first. Reais held as guarantee earn a BTC reward: Free 75% of CDI, Plus 100% of CDI up to R$3,000 (90% above that), Pro 110% of CDI up to R$5,000 (100% above), Max 115% of CDI up to R$5,000 (100% above). It requires an active card. This is interest on your deposit, not a spending reward, and CDI is a rate that moves — so treat it as a floating return, not a promise.

The app. Bipa’s own claim, as read on 20 October 2026: App Store 4.8, Google Play 4.7 across more than 20,000 ratings, more than 300,000 downloads. High ratings and a lot of downloads for a young company are a good sign. They are a claim the company makes about itself, and I did not verify them independently.

Disputes, and the one deadline that matters. Unrecognised transactions must be reported within 5 days of the transaction. That is short. Write it down now: five days, not five business days, and not “as soon as you notice”. After that, Stark Bank performs a preliminary analysis, then a final analysis “within the period defined by Stark Bank” — no number of days is stated. For online purchases there is a 7-day right of withdrawal. Bipa does not assume responsibility for the outcome of a dispute, and a chargeback reverses your Satsback. That last clause is worth sitting with: if you win a chargeback, you lose the cashback on that purchase.

One more thing about international spending that people discover late: foreign use is limited to travel and personal expenses, and only in credit mode. The prepaid card is not the travel card here.

What can go wrong

Grouping this by severity, because a flat list of everything that could break would not help you prioritise.

Frozen money, and getting it back. Credit limit increases require an extra deposit and enabling the guarantee. If you overextend, your own funds are what stands between you and a declined payment.

A deposit on the wrong network. USDT on Solana is not accepted. Irreversible by design, recovered only through support, if at all.

The five-day dispute window. Miss it and the transaction is very likely simply yours.

The card blocked by three wrong PIN attempts. This one is stated and simple: three wrong PIN entries block the card, and you unlock it in the app. Annoying rather than dangerous, but it will happen to someone in a shop at the wrong moment.

Loss or theft. Report to support to have the card blocked. Note the sequence Bipa describes: they answer for third-party misuse only after the block has been requested. So the report is not a formality — it is the thing that starts the clock. On the scam side, Bipa states that neither Bipa nor Stark Bank ever ask for your password.

Legitimacy and status. The company is Bipa Intermediação de Ativos Digitais LTDA, CNPJ 37.008.710/0001-78, founded in 2020 in Brazil, described as both a payment institution and a VASP and regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil — that regulated status is the company’s own claim. The card issuer and BIN sponsor are not named, though elsewhere the issuer is identified as Stark Bank, described as “responsavel pela emissao dos Cartoes BIPA”. Undated, from the company’s own page: R$17 million in funding from Ego Death Capital. Plans are offered with BIPA Instituicao de Pagamento Ltda, CNPJ 40.910.463/0001-05. No dated events were found.

No complaints — and what that does and does not mean. I searched for Bipa card complaints on Reclame Aqui and Trustpilot and found no pages about Bipa on either. That is genuinely reassuring and it is also weak evidence, because a young company with a small volume of complaints may simply not have generated them yet. Separately, Bipa claims a 4.8 rating from more than 26,000 reviews; that is marketing and unverified.

What is not stated, and I want to be plain about it. Custody arrangements and insurance are not stated. Daily, weekly and monthly limits are not stated. The FX markup is not stated. The ATM fee is not stated. Any of these could turn out generous. You will find out after you have committed.

Support hours. App chat (profile, then “Ajuda e suporte”), Help Center chat or form with a reply promised within up to 24 business hours, social media, and email at [email protected]. Hours are Monday to Friday 09h-21h and Saturday to Sunday 09h-15h, time zone not stated. Portuguese only. If you do not read Portuguese, plan for that before the first problem rather than during it.

What to take instead

Three alternatives came up in my comparison, each scoring a little above Bipa. None of them is a clean substitute — they are better on different axes, and the axis you care about decides.

Nexo publishes its fee schedule, which Bipa does not, and that transparency alone is worth something. But the physical card has a high bar: above $5,000 in digital assets and at least Gold tier. Its virtual card activates with $50. Cashback exists only in Credit Mode and only above $5,000 held, and the tier rates run from 2% NEXO / 0.5% BTC at Platinum down to 0.5% / 0.1% at Base — with rates that may change and vary by region. Card currency is not stated; ATM allowances are quoted in EUR and GBP. One news item I am flagging as unofficial and unconfirmed by the company: Cointelegraph reported a 2025-era Bulgarian police raid on Nexo’s Sofia office over alleged Russia-sanctions and AML violations, with no official Nexo statement on Russians found. That is a media report, not a finding.

Pay3 publishes percentages where Bipa publishes nothing, and those percentages are not small: up to 3% for non-USD FX, up to 3% cross-border, up to 3% foreign transaction. It supports Apple Pay and Google Pay cards natively. In exchange, its eligibility rests on a restricted-locations list that is not published and can change without notice, and applicants must attest they are not a US citizen.

Exa is the broadest by geography — and it includes Brazil, which Bipa’s audience overlaps. It is a virtual Visa with no stated monthly fee, accepted at over 150 million merchants. It carries no stated cashback; the “earn while you spend” line refers to yield on assets. Its limits are in collateral terms rather than fee terms.

My honest summary of the comparison: Bipa is the only one of the four with a Bitcoin-denominated cashback ladder that requires no minimum holding, and the only one whose top-up includes Pix and Lightning. Nexo and Pay3 publish their fee schedules; Exa publishes its country list. If you are outside Brazil and outside the US, Pay3 and Exo are both more explicit about who can have them than Bipa is.

Who I would recommend it to

If you live in Brazil, hold Bitcoin or USDT, spend most of your money domestically, and want a percentage of it back in satoshis — the Pro plan at R$49.90 with a free physical card and 1% Satsback is a reasonable thing to try for a month. You can cancel the card free of charge, though remember that cancelling the card does not cancel the plan.

Before you start, I would do three things. Open the app and look at the fee table inside it, because the website does not publish it. Send a test USDT deposit on a network you are certain about, ideally a small one, before you move real money. And email or message support in Portuguese to ask the three questions the site leaves open: the physical card fee on Free and Plus, the FX markup, and whether Apple Pay or Google Pay works.

If you live anywhere else, I would not start with Bipa. The company’s own pages do not state eligibility, the plans are priced in reais, and the conditions I would need are governed by a document the site does not reproduce. Nexo, Pay3 or Exa will tell you on their public pages whether you are eligible at all, which is the question you actually need answered first.

And if your priority is the exchange rate rather than the cashback — if you travel, or buy things priced in dollars — a card that publishes a percentage, however unwelcome that percentage is, beats a card that publishes nothing. You can price the first. You cannot price the second.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bipa?

Bipa is a Brazilian fintech founded in 2020 that offers a Mastercard in both prepaid and credit form, funded from crypto or from reais. Its centre of gravity is a cashback programme that pays part of every card purchase back in Bitcoin, on a ladder from 0% on the Free plan to 1.5% on Max. The card is issued by Stark Bank, and the company describes itself as both a payment institution and a virtual asset service provider.

How does the Bipa card work?

You top up a prepaid balance — via Pix, Bitcoin on-chain or Lightning, or stablecoins on supported networks — and the card spends that balance, so it cannot overdraw. The credit card works differently: it is backed by reais you hold as collateral, and approval of the limit depends on a prior analysis. Buying something with the card in crypto mode converts at a rate the company does not publish.

Is Bipa a bank?

No — it is not a bank, and the bank here is someone else. The card is issued by Stark Bank S.A. Instituicao de Pagamento, a payment institution. Bipa itself is Bipa Intermediação de Ativos Digitais LTDA, and it describes itself as a payment institution and VASP regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil. Plans are offered with BIPA Instituicao de Pagamento Ltda. In Bipa’s own structure, it is the brand and programme manager rather than the issuer.

Can I get the Bipa card in my country?

If you are in Brazil, that is who the product is built for: a Brazilian company, plans priced in reais, credit decided on Brazilian risk criteria. If you are elsewhere, the honest answer is that the card’s public pages do not state the eligibility conditions — not stated at all — so there is nothing for me to check your address against. Ask support before you apply rather than after.

Does the Bipa card require KYC?

Yes. At sign-up you send a selfie and a document, and both Bipa and Stark Bank may verify your data at any time. False information can lead to suspension and cancellation. Bipa may also ask for updated registration data periodically. The page I read does not state which documents count, how long verification takes, or what the different verification levels are — those live in the Card Terms.

How much does the Bipa card cost?

The plan fee is Free R$0, Plus R$14.90, Pro R$49.90 or Max R$99.90 per month, and it can be waived by usage. The physical card is free on Pro and Max and carries a fee on Free and Plus whose amount is not stated. There is no cancellation fee for the card or the plan. What is not disclosed is just as important: no FX rate, no conversion fee, no ATM fee and no spending limits are listed publicly.

How do I top up the Bipa card?

Pix works natively, and so do Bitcoin on-chain transfers and Lightning. USDT is accepted on Ethereum (ERC-20) or Polygon only — Solana is not accepted for USDT — and USDC, SOL, XRP and ETH networks are listed too. Cofrinho has a R$50 minimum. The one to be careful about: sending USDT on a network the card does not support can lose the money, because blockchain transfers cannot be reversed.

Can I add the Bipa card to Apple Wallet?

That is exactly one of the things the public pages do not settle. The card “may be enabled in digital wallets according to eligibility”, and neither Apple Pay nor Google Pay is named. So I cannot tell you it works, and I cannot tell you it does not. Ask support in Portuguese before you choose a plan, because the answer may depend on which tier you are on.

What happens if someone spends my Bipa card?

You have five days to report an unrecognised transaction, and that deadline is the part to remember. Report it to support so the card is blocked — Bipa states it only answers for third-party misuse after the block has been requested. Stark Bank then runs a preliminary and a final analysis, though the final timeframe is not stated in days. Be aware that a successful chargeback reverses the Satsback you earned on that purchase.

Is the Bipa card safe and worth it?

Safe enough on the basics, worth it conditionally. Bipa and Stark Bank state they never ask for your password, the card blocks after three wrong PIN attempts and unlocks in the app, and a dedicated search found no Reclame Aqui or Trustpilot complaints about Bipa. Custody arrangements and insurance are not stated. Worth it if you spend in reais and want Bitcoin back; harder to justify if you need published exchange rates or a phone wallet.

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