Picking a crypto prepaid card in the USA starts with a question most guides skip: which state do you live in? The US has no single crypto licence. Each card provider works through a partner bank and holds, or relies on, money transmitter licences state by state. So a card that is easy to get in Texas may be closed to you in New York, Hawaii, Vermont or Louisiana. This guide lists the cards we could confirm for US residents in October 2026, maps the state gaps, and explains how the IRS treats a card payment funded with crypto.
We separate four kinds of statement throughout. An official rule is a statute, regulation or IRS guidance. A regulator position is what an agency has said or proposed, which is not always binding. A provider rule is a company’s own terms, which can change overnight. Market practice is what reviewers and tax practitioners commonly do. Mixing these up is how people end up surprised by a declined application or a tax bill.
The crypto cards US residents can actually get
Only two exchange cards on the US market call themselves prepaid. The Coinbase Card is described by Coinbase as a Visa prepaid debit card, issued by Pathward, N.A. (Member FDIC) and processed by Marqeta. It spends from your USD balance, from USDC or from crypto that is sold at the moment you pay. Coinbase says there are no spending fees and no annual fee, but a spread applies when crypto is converted. The Crypto.com prepaid Visa works differently: you top up a separate card balance first, and the crypto is converted at load time, not at the till.
The other two mainstream options are debit-style. The Uphold Visa debit card spends from your Uphold wallet, whether that holds dollars or one of 300+ assets. The MetaMask Card is a Mastercard that pulls stablecoins or tokens straight from your self-custody wallet. Then there is the Bitrefill Digital Prepaid Visa, which is not a reloadable card at all. It is a single-load US gift Visa you buy with crypto, and we cover it further down.
| Card | Type | Where | FX fee | ATM | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coinbase Card | Prepaid | US only (not Hawaii) | n/d | n/d | Review Official site ↗ |
| Crypto.com Card | Prepaid | EEA, UK, US, Canada, Australia | 0–3% by tier/region | Free €200–€1,000/mo, then 2% | Review Official site ↗ |
| Uphold Card | Debit | US (not LA, NY, territories) | 1.5% / 0% Elite | $2.95 / $0 Elite | Review Official site ↗ |
| MetaMask Card | Spend card | 40+ countries; US/UK sign-ups paused | Mastercard rate, no MetaMask fee | $1,000–$5,000/day | Review Official site ↗ |
| Bitrefill Prepaid Visa | Gift card | US online merchants | US only | No | Review Official site ↗ |
A few names are missing on purpose. RedotPay lists the United States as an unsupported country in its own help centre. Bybit and Binance do not offer cards to US residents, and Wirex does not serve the US either. KAST is reported by review sites to accept all states, but we could not confirm that on kast.xyz, so we leave it out of the table. Nexo has announced a US comeback, yet its card is not confirmed for Americans. If you see any of these marketed to US users through a reseller, treat that as a red flag. Our safety guide explains why.
Credit products also turn up in searches for the best crypto card in the USA. The Coinbase One Card is an American Express credit card that pays bitcoin back, needs a paid Coinbase One membership and is subject to credit approval. Crypto.com also sells a Visa Signature credit card, issued by Comenity Capital Bank, which is available wherever its app is. Gemini has a Mastercard credit card issued by WebBank. All three are borrowing products, not prepaid ones, and our debit vs prepaid vs credit guide explains why that difference matters for fees and protections.
State-by-state exclusions
This is where the US differs most from Europe or Australia. Every provider below publishes its own list of excluded states. None of these lists is a law in itself. They reflect where each company and its bank partner are licensed, or where they have decided not to operate. The provider rules we found are summarised in the grid, with text where the answer needs nuance.
Can a resident of this state get the card? (provider rules)
● yes ◐ partly / some regions ○ no
Three details are easy to miss. First, Crypto.com says its app is available in 49 states (all except New York), but its help centre adds that the prepaid card has narrower availability than the app and is not offered in US territories. So check the card, not just the app, before you transfer funds. Second, MetaMask lists 49 states including New York, with Vermont excluded. Its card page said US sign-ups were temporarily closed when we checked, and Metal card orders have been paused since 2 June 2026. Existing virtual cardholders are not the same as new applicants. Third, Uphold excludes Louisiana, New York and all US territories.
Hawaii residents have the hardest time. The Coinbase Card is open to all US customers except Hawaiians, which leaves MetaMask (when sign-ups reopen) and Uphold as the confirmed options there. New Yorkers have the opposite problem: Coinbase is their simplest choice, because Crypto.com and Uphold both leave the state out.
Funding your card: ACH, debit cards and direct deposit
In the US the cheapest way to get dollars into a crypto account is usually ACH, the bank-to-bank transfer network. Coinbase lets you fund the card by linking a bank account or by routing part of your paycheck through direct deposit. Uphold accepts bank transfers, direct deposit, PayPal and crypto deposits. Crypto.com supports ACH and wire for USD, according to market reports, and its own help centre lists card top-ups for the USD account with a 1.49% fee for debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Credit cards cannot top up that USD account at all.
The prepaid card itself has its own load rules at Crypto.com. Topping the card up with another debit card costs 1%, a credit card 2.99% and PayPal 2.1%. A worked example shows why this matters. Load $500 by credit card and you pay $14.95 before you have bought anything. Move the same $500 by ACH into your account first and that fee disappears, although you still pay the conversion spread when crypto is sold. Daily and monthly top-up caps also apply: $10,000 per day and $25,000 per month in aggregate, with a $25,000 maximum card balance.
One more trap: most US exchanges will not let you buy crypto with a prepaid card. Coinbase’s help centre says plainly that it does not support prepaid, reloadable, secured or business cards. If you plan to use a gift card or another prepaid card as the starting point, read our guide to exchanges that accept prepaid cards before you try. For the full list of top-up rails and their costs, see how to load a crypto prepaid card.
Federal and state rules behind US crypto cards
Card regulation in the US is layered. At the federal level, FinCEN applies the Bank Secrecy Act. Its 2019 guidance, FIN-2019-G001, treats exchangers and administrators of convertible virtual currency as money transmitters. That makes them money services businesses that must register with FinCEN and run an anti-money-laundering programme. This is the official rule that explains why every card on our list asks for full ID. FinCEN’s separate prepaid access rule exempts some low-value products of $1,000 or less, but only if they cannot be used abroad, cannot send money person to person and cannot be reloaded from a non-bank source. That is why crypto-bought gift Visas stay small and US-only.
The states license money transmission one by one, and the national NMLS database is the place to check a company’s licences. This official state-level patchwork is what produces the exclusions in the grid above. A missing licence does not always mean a provider is breaking rules, because some states do not require a licence for certain crypto activity. But it is the main reason a card can be open in 49 states and closed in one.
The CFPB enforces the Prepaid Rule, part of Regulation E with related changes to Regulation Z. It covers “prepaid accounts”, including reloadable cards and many digital wallets. It requires short and long fee disclosures, an error-resolution process and limits on your liability for unauthorized transfers. A bank-issued card holding a USD balance, such as the Coinbase Card through Pathward, generally sits inside this framework. Whether crypto itself counts as “funds” is still unsettled. That is a regulator-position issue, not a settled rule: the CFPB proposed in January 2025 that stablecoins could count, then withdrew the proposal on 15 May 2025.
The GENIUS Act and stablecoin cards
Many newer US cards spend USDC, so the stablecoin law matters. The GENIUS Act (S.1582) became Public Law 119-27 on 18 July 2025. It is an official rule: it sets up a federal and state licensing regime for issuers of payment stablecoins, requires 1:1 reserves, monthly reserve disclosure and redemption policies, and states that permitted payment stablecoins are not securities.
Implementation is behind schedule, and this part is a mix of regulator actions and market reporting. The statutory deadline for rules, 18 July 2026, passed without full final rules. Treasury published an advance notice in September 2025, and FinCEN, OFAC and Treasury issued proposed rules in April 2026. The Act takes effect on the earlier of 18 January 2027 or 120 days after final rules. For card users, nothing changes at the till yet. Over time, it should make it clearer which stablecoins a US card may hold or spend. Our stablecoin cards hub tracks the products built on them.
- BitPay Card ends
Last day to spend after Metropolitan Commercial Bank exits crypto.
- Form 1099-DA gross proceeds
Brokers report gross proceeds for sales from this date.
- CFPB withdraws stablecoin proposal
The idea that stablecoins are “funds” under EFTA is dropped.
- GENIUS Act signed
Public Law 119-27 creates the payment stablecoin regime.
- Form 1099-DA cost basis
Brokers add basis for sales from this date.
- MetaMask Metal paused
New Metal card orders stop; US sign-ups later shown as closed.
- Crypto.com inactivity fee rises
From $4.95 to $5.95 per month after 12 idle months.
- GENIUS Act latest start
Or 120 days after final rules, if sooner.
IRS rules and Form 1099-DA
The IRS position is clear and has been for years. Notice 2014-21 treats virtual currency as property, not currency. Its FAQ 14 says paying for services with crypto held as a capital asset produces a capital gain or loss, and FAQ 16 applies the same rule to goods. The gain is the fair market value of what you received minus your adjusted basis, under FAQ 15. So when a card sells $40 of bitcoin to pay for dinner, you have made a sale. If you bought that bitcoin for $25, you have a $15 gain, however small the meal.
The structure of your card changes when the sale happens. With a spend-from-balance card like Uphold or MetaMask, each purchase is a separate disposal. With a true prepaid card like Crypto.com, the disposal happens when you load crypto onto the card, because the load converts it to dollars. Spending the dollar balance later is not a new crypto sale. The same applies to a Coinbase Card payment made from your USD balance. The Form 1040 digital asset question asks whether you disposed of a digital asset, including by exchanging it for goods or services, so card users who spend crypto should normally answer yes.
| Event | IRS treatment | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Card sells crypto at purchase | Capital gain or loss | IRS FAQ 14–16 |
| Crypto loaded to a prepaid USD balance | Disposal at load time | FAQ 16 logic |
| Staking rewards | Income at fair market value when you gain control | Rev. Rul. 2023-14 |
| Airdrops after a hard fork | Ordinary income when received | FAQ 23–24 |
| Crypto cashback on purchases | No crypto-specific rule | CCA 202417021 (non-precedential) |
Broker reporting is tightening. Under the official rule, brokers report gross proceeds on Form 1099-DA for digital asset sales on or after 1 January 2025, and cost basis for sales on or after 1 January 2026. A busy card user can rack up hundreds of tiny disposals a year, so download your transaction history every quarter rather than waiting for a form that may or may not cover card activity.
Card rewards are the grey zone. The IRS has no ruling on crypto cashback. A Chief Counsel memo, CCA 202417021, treats credit-card cash-back rewards as a rebate rather than income, but it is non-precedential. Market practice among tax preparers is to treat purchase-linked crypto cashback as a price rebate, with a basis equal to its value when received, while treating sign-up or staking-tier bonuses not tied to spending as income. That is practice, not law, so ask a preparer if your rewards are large. Our crypto card tax guide compares how other countries handle the same events.
Gift-card routes: Bitrefill and the US-only catch
If you do not want an account-based card, the Bitrefill Digital Prepaid Visa is the main crypto-to-card route for US residents. It is issued by Sutton Bank (Member FDIC) and fulfilled by Perfect Gift, LLC. You pay with Bitcoin, Lightning, Ether, USDT, USDC, Solana and others, and only your name is collected as the cardholder name. Cards run from $20 to $1,000, with a cap of $1,000 per seven days per customer. Fees are shown at checkout, and we did not capture an exact amount.
The limits follow directly from FinCEN’s prepaid access rule. The card is non-reloadable and works only with US online merchants. It cannot be used at ATMs, for subscriptions, for money transfers, or with Venmo, Cash App or PayPal. That also means you cannot turn it back into crypto at most exchanges. Our Bitrefill review covers the details, and the Visa gift card guide explains why the reverse route, buying crypto with a gift card, usually fails.
For most Americans we would start with the Coinbase Card if you already use Coinbase and do not live in Hawaii. It is open, cheap to hold and the issuer is named. If you want tiers and a separate prepaid balance, Crypto.com is the alternative, but only if you will move up a tier or spend mostly in dollars. On Midnight Blue, a $2,000 trip abroad costs $60 in FX fees alone. And set a calendar reminder: a forgotten Crypto.com card now costs $5.95 a month after a year of no use. We compare both head to head in Crypto.com vs Coinbase Card.
Practical tips for US cardholders
Check the card, not the app. State availability lists differ between an exchange app and the card it offers. Crypto.com is the clearest example. Read the card help article for your state before you deposit.
Know which product you hold. A prepaid card with a USD balance falls under the CFPB Prepaid Rule and gives you dispute rights for unauthorized transfers. Crypto held in an exchange wallet is a claim on that company. Self-custody, as with MetaMask, keeps your keys in your hands until you pay, but the card can still stop working if its issuer changes course. The BitPay story is a reminder of how that ends: when the bank left in 2023, the card simply stopped.
Use dollars or stablecoins for everyday spending. Every card payment funded by bitcoin or ether is a taxable sale. Spending from a USD or USDC balance keeps your records far simpler, because a stablecoin bought at $1 and spent at $1 produces no meaningful gain. Watch the limits too: our limits guide lists daily and monthly caps, and the fees calculator shows how spreads and FX add up over a year.
If you live near the border or travel often, it is worth reading the Canada guide too. Most US cards are not open to Canadians, and the rules there run on a different federal model. The full list of country guides is on our countries map.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best crypto card in the USA?
Which crypto cards work in New York?
Do I pay tax every time I use a crypto card in the US?
Will my crypto card company send me a Form 1099-DA?
Is the BitPay Card still available?
Sources and official pages
- Coinbase Card — official page (issuer and eligibility)
- Crypto.com Help — US states where the app and card are available
- Crypto.com Help — US prepaid Visa fees and limits
- Uphold — US debit card plans and state exclusions
- FinCEN — guidance FIN-2019-G001 on convertible virtual currency
- Congress.gov — S.1582, the GENIUS Act (Public Law 119-27)
- IRS — Frequently asked questions on virtual currency transactions
- IRS — Digital assets and Form 1099-DA
Load your card with crypto you own
Buy Bitcoin, Ether or stablecoins with a bank card, Apple Pay or bank transfer, then move them to the card or wallet you choose.
Open accountCheck availability in your country before signing up.The exchange linked here holds US state licences but not in every state (New York and California are not on its list). Supported states are shown at sign-up.
