The BitPay card is closed — here is what that means for anyone still holding a balance
Available in US
If you came here looking to order a BitPay card in 2026, stop there: there is no card to order. The prepaid Mastercard programme that BitPay ran with its issuing bank ended on 15 June 2023, and the replacement card that was hinted at has not appeared on the BitPay site since. The score I give this product, with that fact front and centre, is 1.7 out of 10 — and almost every point of that score is shaped by the closure, not by the fees or features, which the card’s public pages no longer describe.
The conditions described in this review are current as of October 28, 2026.
Verdict
A BitPay card is not something to apply for in 2026: the programme was wound down in 2023, the BitPay site no longer lists a card, and the historical fees and limits are not stated on official pages any more. If you already have a card, the loading window, ATM access and spending ability have all closed; if you held a balance, the issuer mailed it as a cheque around 30 June 2023. That is the entire user experience in a sentence.
| Criterion | Score | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Who can get it | 0 / 10 | The card is closed; support and ATMs ended 15 June 2023 after the issuing bank exited crypto, and there is no card on the BitPay site |
| Cost | 3 / 10 | Unofficial historical figures only: 3% FX, $2.50 per domestic ATM, $5 monthly dormancy after 90 days, $10 to replace the card; nothing disclosed officially any more |
| Top-up options | 3 / 10 | Not stated; the programme is closed and the last day to load was 1 June 2023 |
| Reliability and complaints | 1 / 10 | The programme closed on 15 June 2023 and remaining balances were sent by cheque; BitPay’s Trustpilot score is 1.2 out of 5 across 299 reviews, and a replacement card never launched |
| Everyday use | 2 / 10 | The card is gone, so the conditions for the virtual card, the physical card, the wallet apps and ATM access are not stated |
For anyone still tracking down a leftover balance, this page is most useful as a record of what happened and what the unofficial historical fees looked like; the section on alternatives lists cards that are actually live.
What happened to the programme
The card you may have read about is the BitPay Prepaid Mastercard, which BitPay issued together with Metropolitan Commercial Bank as the licensed US issuer. The programme was wound down over the course of 2023, and the end was driven by the bank, not by BitPay. In January 2023 Metropolitan Commercial Bank announced that it was exiting crypto banking; on 17 May 2023 BitPay emailed cardholders that the prepaid Mastercard programme was being wound down; the last day to load the card was 1 June 2023; ATM access and spending ended on 15 June 2023; and around 30 June 2023 any remaining balance was supposed to be sent as a cheque to the address on file.
A few things are worth keeping in mind when you read those dates. First, the card had already been through one closure before: in 2018 BitPay’s earlier non-US prepaid Visa was shut down after Visa revoked the licence of Wave Crest, the European issuer that supplied the programme. The pattern — an issuer leaving the crypto card market, a brand rebuilding with a new partner — has happened to several companies in this space. Second, sources disagree on the current state of a “replacement” card. One review says a replacement never launched; another, CryptoCardHub, says new applications are paused and a waitlist is open, but the page is undated and the BitPay site does not confirm it as of October 28, 2026. Treat the waitlist claim as unverified, and do not pay for anything to “join” a list.
The BitPay site does not, as of October 28, 2026, list a card product at all. What it does show is the BitPay Wallet (download badges for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac, with no star ratings on the page itself) and a company-level statement that BitPay is “licensed to engage in Virtual Currency Business Activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services” — NYDFS — with NMLS ID#1496848. That licence is for the broader BitPay business, not for the card, and the card issuer is not named on the public card pages any more. The official pages do not, at the time of writing, list a card issuer, fee schedule, supported cryptocurrencies, tier structure, country list, delivery time, KYC flow or anything else specific to the card: every one of those comes back as “not stated” once the card product is gone.
The historical fees you may see quoted in older reviews — 3% foreign transaction fee, $2.50 per domestic ATM withdrawal, $5 monthly dormancy fee after 90 days of inactivity and a $10 standard card replacement — are from third-party sites (notably CryptoSlate), not from BitPay’s own current pages. I am reporting them because they are the only public record of what the card cost, but the card programme is closed, so they no longer apply to anyone. If you find a more recent page quoting different numbers, that page is not a current BitPay source.
If you already have the card
Most of what holders need to know was decided in mid-2023. If you had a balance on the card at 15 June 2023, BitPay’s communication said the remaining amount would be issued as a cheque to the address linked to the card within about 30 days. The exact refund amount and a formal claims process were not published. There is no public record of how much was actually mailed, and if a cheque was sent to an old address it may have been returned to sender or never arrived.
If you held cryptocurrency in the BitPay wallet but had not converted it to a card balance, the wallet app itself was not part of the closure: BitPay continued to operate its wallet and merchant services. That means your crypto stayed where it was, but you could no longer spend it on this card. To use those funds today you would convert them in the BitPay app and send them to a bank account, an external wallet, or — if you want a live card — a replacement card from one of the providers in the section on alternatives. BitPay’s support was reachable from the wallet app before the closure; a public help library is still on the site. Languages and hours are not stated.
A short checklist for anyone who once held the card:
- Look back at your statements for a cheque around late June 2023. If it never arrived, contact BitPay support through the app or the help library and ask for a trace.
- If you have crypto still sitting in the BitPay wallet, decide whether you want to leave it there (custodial risk) or move it to a self-custody wallet.
- Do not pay anyone who promises to “recover” unspent balances for a fee. A predictable pattern on BitPay’s Trustpilot page is a user report of funds they cannot withdraw, followed by a reply from a “recovery agent” offering to help for an upfront payment. These replies are not from BitPay.
- The historical limits you may see quoted — $10,000 daily purchase cap and $25,000 monthly ATM cap — are unofficial, come from a CryptoSlate review and are not confirmed by BitPay, but they tell you what the card was originally set up to do.
The replacement that was hinted at in 2023 was, as of October 28, 2026, not on the BitPay site. There is no official launch date, no card image and no fee table for it. If a third-party site claims a waitlist, treat that as unconfirmed.
What can go wrong
The closure is itself the main risk, and the pattern of how it happened is worth understanding because the same risk applies to almost any crypto card.
The card was issued by a bank (Metropolitan Commercial Bank), and that bank decided to leave the crypto banking business. The brand on the front — BitPay — could not keep the programme running on its own. That is a structural point about this category of product: most crypto cards are issued by a bank or an e-money institution under a Visa or Mastercard licence, and the crypto company is usually the programme manager rather than the issuer. When the issuer changes its mind about crypto, the card stops, and the brand’s customer base loses a payment method that was sold as a permanent feature.
Two earlier examples are worth knowing about, because they shaped the rules in this market:
- In 2018 Visa revoked the licence of Wave Crest, a Gibraltar-based issuer that supplied prepaid Visa programmes to several crypto brands, and the BitPay non-US Visa was one of the programmes that closed as a result.
- In November 2022 Visa said it had “terminated our global agreements with FTX” and the FTX US debit card was wound down by its issuer.
The general lesson is that a card is only as durable as its issuer’s appetite for the business, and that appetite can change quickly.
The other things that can go wrong are the usual things for a custodial crypto product, plus the things that a closed programme leaves behind. BitPay’s Trustpilot page — which is the company, not the card specifically — sits at 1.2 out of 5 across 299 reviews (read 2026-10-20; 89% one star). The themes in 2025 and 2026 reviews are funds that users say they cannot withdraw or send, KYC demands that are described as excessive or declined (one user mentions KYC being asked for a $15 payment in October 2026), bot-only support with no phone line, and account closures that customers say they did not request. BitPay does not respond to negative reviews on the page. Some reviews also promote “recovery” services for lost funds; those are unverified, often the same people who approach users directly, and they should be ignored.
Security controls on the card itself are not stated any more on the public BitPay pages. In the past the wallet provider of record for the BitPay wallet has been named as BitPay Software, LLC; the card issuer is not stated. If you held the card, the practical takeaway is that the standard precautions — a strong unique password, two-factor authentication, an instant card freeze if one is offered, and not storing a recovery phrase on a device — are still worth following in the wallet, even though the card no longer exists.
What to take instead
The honest answer here is that there is no single drop-in replacement for the BitPay card, because the BitPay card was a US-issued prepaid Mastercard tied to a specific wallet, and most of the cards below solve a different problem. What follows are three products that are live as of October 28, 2026 and that I have compared against BitPay in the scoring system this site uses. None of them is a perfect match; pick the one whose gap you can live with.
| Card | Score | Where it works | What it costs | What it does well | What it does not do well |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardex | 5.6 / 10 | 200+ countries, but the App Store listing is Naira-focused | Real-time crypto-to-fiat conversion; no percentage disclosed | Spends USDT, USDC or BTC through a debit card on VERVE, Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay | No published fee schedule; card currency is Naira per the listing; KYC detail is not stated |
| MSX | 6.4 / 10 | Not stated on an official page I could read | Not stated | Listed higher in the scoring than the other two | Almost nothing is stated officially; you have to sign up to find out the basics |
| Whop Cards | 5.2 / 10 | Consumers in 31 US states; not available to residents of Belarus, Mainland China, Cuba, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela or Vietnam | “No extra fees” on the page; no issuance or monthly figures | A Visa that spends from a Whop balance, with 5% cashback at select merchants (currently Uber) | Funded from a Whop balance rather than directly from crypto, so the flow is one step removed; coins and networks are not stated; corporate version is the easier one to qualify for (41 US states) |
A few notes on each, because the table flattens some important differences.
Cardex is a debit crypto card on the VERVE, Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay networks, with a virtual and a physical version. The page talks up an “AI-Powered Conversion Rate” that scans global exchanges at the moment of payment, which sounds good but does not tell you what you actually pay. There is no fee percentage on the site, and the card currency is listed as Naira on the App Store, so it is positioned primarily for a Nigerian audience even though the marketing page says 200+ countries. If you are outside Nigeria, treat the country list and the supported networks as something to confirm at sign-up.
MSX is the highest-scoring of the three in our system, but the public page is thin: country availability, card form, fees, funding and rewards are not stated on a page I could read. That is not a reason to avoid it, but it is a reason to go in expecting to do the discovery yourself rather than reading it off a marketing page.
Whop Cards are the easiest of the three to read, partly because the page does not try to oversell. You get a Visa that works online and in stores, you spend from a Whop balance, and you get 5% cashback at a short list of merchants (Uber today, more promised). The 31-state US consumer footprint is the real limit, and the unsupported-country list is long enough that it is worth checking before you assume you qualify. The card is funded from a Whop balance rather than directly from a self-custody wallet, so the “crypto” part is one hop further away than on most crypto cards.
If you are choosing between these three, the simple rule is: pick Whop Cards if you are a US consumer and you can live with spending from a balance, pick Cardex if you want a direct crypto-to-fiat debit flow and you are comfortable with the lack of a published fee table, and pick MSX only if you have already read the official page and decided the gap is acceptable. None of them is a like-for-like replacement for the BitPay card; the BitPay card is gone, and a like-for-like replacement does not exist.
Who I would recommend it to
I would not recommend the BitPay card to anyone, in 2026, for a simple reason: there is no card to be recommended. The programme closed in mid-2023, the issuer that ran it has left crypto banking, the BitPay site does not list a card product, and any third-party page that says a replacement or a waitlist is open is either out of date or unconfirmed.
The closest thing to a recommendation I can make is for the people who are still affected by the closure:
- If you had a balance in June 2023 and never received a cheque, contact BitPay support through the app and ask for a trace. The 30 June 2023 mailing is the last action on the public record, and there is no published claims process beyond that.
- If you have crypto still in the BitPay wallet, decide whether you want to leave it with a custodian (faster, but you carry the counterparty risk) or move it to a self-custody wallet (slower to set up, but you hold the keys). The card is not coming back, so the wallet is now the only BitPay product that affects your day-to-day.
- If you are looking for a live replacement, start with the section on alternatives and pick on geography first. Whop Cards for the United States, Cardex if you are outside the US and want a direct crypto-to-fiat flow, and MSX if you have already read its page and accept what is not stated.
- Do not pay anyone who offers to recover a “stuck” BitPay balance for a fee, and do not believe reviews that promote such services. The pattern shows up in the Trustpilot thread and it is a known form of follow-on fraud against people who have already lost money.
For the broader question of whether crypto cards in general are worth using, the short version is that they are useful for spending crypto without first selling it on an exchange, but the product you are buying is the issuer’s banking licence, and an issuer can leave the market. That is what happened to BitPay, and it is the main thing to know about any card in this category.
Frequently asked questions
Is the BitPay card still available?
No. The prepaid Mastercard programme was wound down in 2023, the last day to load the card was 1 June 2023, ATM access and spending ended on 15 June 2023, and remaining balances were mailed as cheques around 30 June 2023. The BitPay site does not list a card product as of October 28, 2026, and there is no public launch date for a replacement.
What happened to my BitPay card balance?
If you had a balance on the card at 15 June 2023, BitPay’s communication said the remainder would be issued as a cheque to the address on file within about 30 days. The exact refund amount and a formal claims process were not published. If the cheque did not arrive, contact BitPay support through the app to ask for a trace.
Did BitPay launch a replacement card?
Not as of October 28, 2026. Some third-party sites mention a waitlist or a paused application process, but the BitPay site does not confirm it. Treat those claims as unconfirmed, and do not pay a third party to “secure you a spot.”
Why did the BitPay card shut down?
The issuing bank, Metropolitan Commercial Bank, announced in January 2023 that it was exiting crypto banking. BitPay emailed cardholders on 17 May 2023 that the prepaid Mastercard programme was being wound down. The closure was the bank’s decision, not BitPay’s, and it is a structural risk for any crypto card: most of them are run by a bank or an e-money institution under a network licence, and the crypto brand is usually the programme manager rather than the issuer.
Can I still use the BitPay wallet?
Yes. The BitPay wallet app (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac) is not part of the card closure and the company continues to operate it. You can hold, send and receive supported crypto in the wallet, but you can no longer spend it on a BitPay-issued card.
What were the old BitPay card fees?
Unofficial historical figures, no longer disclosed on official pages: 3% foreign transaction fee, $2.50 per domestic ATM withdrawal, $5 monthly dormancy fee after 90 days of inactivity, $10 to replace the card, $10,000 daily purchase cap and $25,000 monthly ATM cap. These come from a third-party review (CryptoSlate) and were never re-confirmed by BitPay. The card programme is closed, so they no longer apply.
Is BitPay a bank?
No. BitPay is a virtual currency business licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) under NMLS ID#1496848. The card was issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank, which held the banking licence. When that bank left crypto, the card had to close.
What is the best replacement for the BitPay card?
There is no like-for-like replacement. The closest live options, depending on where you live, are Whop Cards (31 US states, spends from a Whop balance, 5% cashback at select merchants), Cardex (200+ countries, debit crypto card on VERVE, Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay) and MSX (higher scoring in our system but with very little officially stated). Pick on geography first, then on the fee and funding model.
Is BitPay safe to use?
BitPay is a regulated virtual currency business in New York and has been operating since the early 2010s. Its Trustpilot page sits at 1.2 out of 5 across 299 reviews, with recurring complaints in 2025 and 2026 about withdrawals, KYC and bot-only support. Treat those reviews as one signal among several, and follow the usual precautions: a strong unique password, two-factor authentication, an instant card freeze where offered, and a recovery phrase kept offline. Be wary of “recovery” services promoted in the review thread.
Do I need to do KYC to use a BitPay card?
There is no card to use, so the question is moot for the BitPay card specifically. For the BitPay wallet, identity checks apply under standard anti-money-laundering rules, and customer due diligence typically covers name, address, date of birth, nationality and an identity document. If due diligence cannot be completed, the account may be closed or transactions refused.
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