How to load funds onto a crypto prepaid card

Learning how to load funds onto a crypto prepaid card is mostly about choosing the right route for your money. A card can usually be filled from four directions: crypto you already hold in the provider’s app, coins sent on-chain from another wallet, a bank transfer, or a debit or credit card payment. Each route has its own fee, speed and failure points. The cheapest one is rarely the card payment the app pushes first. Below we go through each method, list the top-up options for the main cards, explain Crypto.com’s fee rules in detail and answer a question we still get: how to load a BitPay Card. (Short version: you can’t, and haven’t been able to since 2023.)

The four crypto prepaid card top-up methods

1. Internal balance. If you keep crypto or stablecoins on the same exchange that issues your card, loading is a transfer inside the app. It is usually instant and has no network fee, though the provider earns a spread when it converts coins into the card currency. Bybit, OKX, Nexo and Coinbase cards spend directly from your exchange balance, so there is no separate “load” step at all.

2. On-chain deposit. You send crypto from another wallet or exchange to a deposit address in the card app. You pay the blockchain network fee, and the deposit lands after the required confirmations. This is how most stablecoin cards such as KAST and RedotPay are filled, and how prefunded cards like SolCard and Moon work.

3. Bank transfer. Some apps take fiat by ACH, SEPA, Faster Payments, Interac, PayID or Pix. Fees are low or zero, but transfers can take hours to days. Once the fiat is in, there is no crypto conversion at spend time.

4. Debit or credit card. The fastest route and the most expensive. Card top-ups carry a percentage fee, and your bank may treat the payment as a cash advance. We cover why in the section on loading with a card.

Which route makes sense depends on where your money starts. If it is already crypto, route 1 or 2. If it is in a bank account, route 3. Route 4 is for when speed matters more than cost. Our explainer on how crypto prepaid cards work shows where the conversion happens in each case.

Top-up methods card by card

This table covers the main cards we track. Fees marked “reported” come from third-party sources rather than the provider’s own pages.

Two patterns stand out. Exchange cards rarely need loading at all, because they sell from your balance at the moment you pay. Prefunded and stablecoin cards need a deposit first, and that is where network choice and conversion fees matter. If you are comparing the full cost of a card rather than just top-ups, our crypto card fees guide has a calculator.

Crypto.com top-up fee rules, in detail

Crypto.com runs one of the few cards the provider itself calls prepaid, so it has a genuine “load” step, and its rules are worth knowing exactly. The most important one: Crypto.com says cardholders cannot load cryptocurrency onto the card. When you top up from your crypto wallet, the coins are converted to fiat and the card holds fiat. In Canada, the help center adds that top-ups cannot be moved back to the Cash wallet once they are on the card, and the Canadian card is CAD only.

In the US, the fee schedule dated 1 September 2026 sets card top-up fees at 1% for debit cards, 2.99% for credit cards and 2.1% for PayPal. Debit and credit card top-ups are limited to $250 a day and $2,000 a month on the free Midnight Blue tier, or $1,000 a day and $5,000 a month on higher tiers, with a $20 minimum. All top-ups together are capped at $10,000 a day and $25,000 a month, and the card can hold at most $25,000. An inactivity fee applies after 12 months without use, rising from $4.95 to $5.95 a month from 1 September 2026.

Elsewhere the numbers change. In Australia, Crypto.com lists card top-ups at 1% for debit, 2% for credit and 2% for Apple Pay, with a monthly top-up limit of A$30,000. The EEA page sets an aggregated top-up limit of €25,000 a month, and Canada C$35,000. Don’t confuse card top-ups with funding your Crypto.com cash account: adding USD to the account by US debit card costs 1.49%, and adding EUR by card costs 3.99%. Those are separate fees, charged before any money reaches the card. The full breakdown is in our Crypto.com Card review.

On-chain deposits: picking the right network

Most crypto to prepaid card transfers go wrong on the network, not the coin. USDT and USDC exist on several blockchains, and each card app supports only some of them. Sending on a chain the app doesn’t support can mean a long recovery process or lost funds. Always copy the deposit address from the app, select the same network on the sending side, and send a small test amount first if you have not used that route before.

• USDT
  TetherOften TRON or Ethereum
• USDC
  USD CoinBase, Solana, Ethereum and more
• BTC
  BitcoinOn-chain or Lightning (Moon)
• SOL
  SolanaSolCard top-ups
• EURe
  Euro stablecoinBleap, MetaMask

Some specifics from official pages: KAST supports USDT, USDC and more than 25 assets on more than 10 chains. Laso settles on Base and Solana. SolCard confirms SOL top-ups and lists other “supported digital assets”. Cryptorefills, for comparison, accepts USDT on both Ethereum and TRON. If you are choosing a coin specifically for spending, our guide to supported cryptocurrencies and our overview of stablecoin cards go into which chains each card takes.

Stablecoins have one more advantage. Spending a stablecoin usually creates little or no taxable gain, because its value barely moves. Loading a card with Bitcoin or Ether, on the other hand, is a disposal in most countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand. Our crypto card tax guide explains what to record.

Bank transfer top-ups by region

Bank transfers are the slow, cheap route, and the right rail depends on where you live. In the US, ACH is the standard; Wirex, KAST and Uphold accept bank transfers, and the Coinbase Card can be funded from a linked bank account or direct deposit. In the EEA, SEPA and SEPA Instant are the norm for euro accounts at Crypto.com, Bybit EU, Nexo and similar providers. In the UK, Wirex lists Faster Payments.

Further afield, Canada’s Shakepay card is funded by Interac e-Transfer, Australians use PayID and Osko for exchanges such as CoinJar, and in Brazil Pix is the standard top-up for Foxbit, Bybit and Gnosis Pay. In India, we found no crypto card that accepts rupee top-ups or UPI. The country guides list the local options in detail.

Loading with a debit or credit card

Card top-ups are instant, which is why apps show them first. They are also where most of the friction lives. Crypto-related card payments are coded as quasi-cash under Visa’s merchant rules, so your bank may block them or charge a cash-advance fee on top of the provider’s fee. A credit card is the worst case: you pay the top-up percentage, and your card issuer may add cash-advance interest from day one.

Trying to load a crypto card with a gift card or another prepaid card usually fails for the same reasons it fails on exchanges. Our guides to buying crypto with a prepaid card and to exchanges that accept prepaid cards explain the checks involved.

The better pattern is to buy crypto or stablecoins first, with a method that works, then send them to the card app. CEX.IO is one long-running option for that first step. It has operated since 2013, is registered with FinCEN as a money services business (NMLS 1804170) with state licenses in about 39 US jurisdictions (not New York or California), and is registered with the UK FCA under the Money Laundering Regulations (FRN 1007192). It accepts personal debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH and SEPA, and supports more than 200 crypto assets across 40+ networks. It does not serve Canada or India, and EEA visitors currently see a MiCA service notice, so check availability first. CEX.IO no longer has a card of its own; its card was discontinued on 3 February 2026.

Self-custody cards: you don’t load, you hold

Self-custody cards flip the idea of loading. With the MetaMask Card, your funds stay in your wallet until the moment you pay; MetaMask supports Linea, Base, Monad and Solana, with tokens such as mUSD, USDC, USDT, wETH and EURe. Bleap spends EURe and USDC on Solana, Base and Arbitrum with no conversion fee. ether.fi Cash can spend USDC directly or borrow against your crypto. In each case, “topping up” means moving tokens into the right wallet on the right chain.

The benefit is that a card shutdown doesn’t trap your balance. When the issuer behind the Solflare card wound down in July 2026, users kept their stablecoins because the coins never left their wallets. Our page on self-custody crypto cards covers the trade-offs.

How to load a BitPay Card (and why you can’t)

People still search for how to load a BitPay Card, so here is the history. The BitPay Card was a US prepaid Mastercard issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank. When the bank exited crypto, the program ended in June 2023. Today bitpay.com/card redirects to the BitPay app homepage, and the old “card transition” blog post no longer loads.

1. 1 Jun 2023
   Last day to load

   Reported final date for adding funds to BitPay Cards.

2. 15 Jun 2023
   Cards stop working

   Last day for purchases and ATM withdrawals; balances refunded by paper check.

3. After 2023
   Replacement promised

   BitPay opened a waitlist for a new card that has not launched.

4. Oct 2026
   Still no card

   bitpay.com/card redirects to the app homepage; no card product listed.

If you held a BitPay Card, there is nothing left to load or recover through the card itself; refunds were sent by paper check. Our BitPay Card page has the full story and suggests alternatives. The same applies to the CEX.IO card, which stopped working on 3 February 2026; see our CEX.IO card page. For a live replacement, start with the cards in the table above and pick the one whose top-up method matches how you hold your money.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and official pages

1. Crypto.com Help — Prepaid Visa Card fees and limits (US)
2. Crypto.com — EEA card page and FAQ
3. Crypto.com Help — Top up your Visa card (Canada)
4. Bybit — Card general inquiries FAQ
5. MetaMask — Card
6. SolCard — Product page
7. Wirex — Personal

Ready when you are

Buy the coins, then load the card.

Get crypto or stablecoins with a debit card or bank transfer, then send them to the card app on the right network.

Fund your card

Exchange running since 2013 · registered with FinCEN (US) and the FCA (UK) · card, Apple Pay or bank transfer

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