The Best Crypto Cards in Canada For 2024

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    Can you spend crypto like real money? Thanks to a variety of crypto cards on the market, Canadians can turn their digital currency into shiny hard plastic. Crypto cards let you spend your cryptocurrency holdings on pretty much whatever you want and anywhere they accept Visa or Mastercard. Some crypto-friendly cards even give you crypto cash back rewards on every purchase. The more you spend, the more crypto you accumulate without risking your own bacon. Let’s take a look at the most popular crypto cards in Canada right now and the different features they have.

    While there are many cryptocurrency exchange platforms available to Canadians, not all of them offer crypto cards in Canada. Below is a list of crypto prepaid Visa cards currently available in the Great White North. Some are crypto-specific cards that allow you to spend your fiat holdings on the platform, while others are simply crypto-friendly cards that allow you to earn crypto cash back rewards on your purchases. Still, there are some crypto cards that allow you to do both. Let’s take a look at each. 

    1. Wealthsimple Prepaid Mastercard: get 1% back in crypto, cash, or stocks

    The Wealthsimple Prepaid Mastercard is more of a crypto-friendly card rather than a designated crypto card specifically. Wealthsimple is one of the best online investment brokerages in Canada and they offer a suite of other features and products. In 2020, Wealthsimple launched their hybrid Spend & Save account along with the Wealthsimple Cash Card, a prepaid Mastercard accepted everywhere Mastercard is accepted. Nestled inside the Wealthsimple Trade app is the ability to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency.

    The Wealthsimple Prepaid Mastercard provides 1% cash back on all your daily purchases with the card. The best part? You can choose to earn your cash back in the form of stocks or crypto, talk about no-fuss crypto investing. The Wealthsimple Prepaid Mastercard is a great way to invest in crypto without using your own money.

    It’s a prepaid Mastercard, not a credit card. There is no credit check or minimum income required to get this card. Simply open a Wealthsimple Cash account, then request the card from within the mobile app. In order to have your cash back rewards automatically buy crypto for you, you’ll need to open a Wealthsimple Trade account too. Then, from your Wealthsimple mobile app, activate the “invest your rewards feature” and follow the prompts. You can fund the card by linking your bank account, a debit card, accepting cash from other Wealthsimple users, as well as from your other Wealthsimple accounts. 

    The Wealthsimple Prepaid Mastercard is available as a virtual card as well as a physical card. It’s also compatible with both Apple Pay and Google Pay. A great feature of the Wealthsimple app is that you can instantly send cash to friends and family on the app, making it another great Canadian alternative to Venmo.

    You can also spend your crypto holdings almost instantly at the tap of a button. The Wealthsimple Trade mobile app has integrated features that allow you to sell your crypto holdings back into Canadian dollars, then send that money to your Wealthsimple Cash account.

    The Wealthsimple Prepaid Mastercard is basically free. There is no fee to get the card, no monthly or annual fees, and no fees for transactions. Wealthsimple doesn’t even charge exchange fees on foreign transactions. All you have to pay is the Canadian equivalent of your transaction along with any applicable fees imposed by Visa and any Automated Teller Machines (ATM) you use to access the funds on your card.  You can spend a maximum of $5,000 per day, and withdraw a maximum of $1,000 per day, with a $500 cap per ATM withdrawal transaction. 

    2. Shakepay Prepaid Visa: earn crypto rewards

    The Shakepay Visa is another wildly popular crypto card on the market. Shakepay is a Canadian cryptocurrency company based out of Montreal, Quebec. They offer zero-commission trades for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). They also offer Canadians an alternative to Venmo with instant peer-to-peer cash and crypto transfers. The Shakepay Visa is a prepaid card that allows you to spend the Canadian dollars in your Shakepay account. It doesn’t require a credit check or minimum income to qualify. 

    Shakepay Visa cardholders earn 1% cash back in Bitcoin on all their purchases, and new users earn an additional 1% on their first $5,000. Cardholders also get the chance to have their purchases paid back in Bitcoin. You can also earn free Bitcoin every day when you open the mobile app and shake your phone. 

    The Shakepay Visa card is available to all Shakepay users in all provinces and territories. To get the card, download the Shakepay app and open an account. You can fund your account for free by eTransfer, bank wire, or by transferring in BTC or ETH from a private wallet. You can also receive cash and crypto from other Shakepay users free of charge. 

    As long as there is Canadian money in your Shakepay account, you can use the card on all your everyday purchases everywhere Visa is accepted. You decide how much you spend by how much you deposit into your account. You can also fund your account by selling your BTC and ETH back into Canadian dollars. Whether you earn BTC on your card purchases or buy it directly, you can either store it on the platform, transfer it to a private wallet or cash it out to Canadian funds. Cash and crypto withdrawals are always free. 

    There are no monthly or annual fees to use the card. The Shakepay Visa is compatible with both Apple Pay and Google Pay, and can be used online or in-store. If your card is ever lost or stolen, you can suspend it from the app. Most of the crypto on the Shakepay platform is stored offline in a cold wallet, and covered by a digital asset insurance policy.

    3. Netcoins Prepaid Visa Card: earn crypto rewards

    Based in Vancouver, Netcoins is one of the top cryptocurrency exchange platforms in Canada, especially for beginners. Established in 2014, Netcoins provided Bitcoin ATMs around the world, as well as providing private brokerage services for large crypto investors. Now, Netcoins is a popular exchange platform that allows users to fund their trade account with either CAD or USD funds and offers them a rewards-earning crypto card as well. 

    Netcoins offers the Netcoins Mastercard Prepaid Card. It’s not a credit card, so there is no credit check or minimum income required to get it. It’s linked to your Netcoins account, allowing you to spend your Canadian funds balance anywhere Visa is accepted, either instore or online. You’ll earn 1% cash back on all your purchases. You can either keep your Bitcoin rewards in your Netcoins account or transfer them off the platform to a private wallet. 

    Your cash back rewards are earned in Canadian dollars first, then your accumulated rewards balance is automatically converted into Bitcoin once a month. To get this crypto card, you’ll need to open a Netcoins account then request the prepaid Visa. You can choose between a physical card, a virtual card, or both. There is no cost to get the card, and there are no annual or monthly card fees either. 

    Netcoins crypto cards are valid wherever they accept Mastercard, and the virtual card is ready to use almost instantly after signing up. This card is also compatible with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. You can fund your Netcoins prepaid visa by Interac eTransfer, bank wire, or when you sell your crypto holdings back into Canadian dollars. With the Netcoins mobile app, you can fund your account, make trades, and withdraw from your account anytime. Again, that means you can quickly sell your crypto then spend the balance of Canadian funds with your card. 

    There are almost no transaction fees to use this card for day-to-day purchases. There is a 1.5% foreign transaction fee along with an inactivity fee of $1 per month if your card hasn’t been used for 12 consecutive months. The Netcoins prepaid card does have a daily point-of-sale transaction limit of 15 per day, and a maximum of 5 ATM transactions per day. While every card imposes some sort of dollar amount cap on various types of transactions, the Netcoins crypto card offers some of the most generous transaction limits with a total daily spend limit of $8,000, and a total ATM withdrawal limit of $2,000. You can find all the associated fees and limits in the cardholder agreement.  

    4. Crypto.com Prepaid Visa: earn crypto rewards

    The Crypto.com Prepaid Visa Card might just be the most popular crypto card in Canada. Unlike an actual credit card, the Crypto.com Visa is a prepaid card you load with your own money. You don’t need a credit check to get this card and you’ll never owe a balance or pay interest for using it. Simply load your crypto card from debit/credit card, eTransfer, or from your crypto wallet.

    Crypto.com has its own native token called Cronos (CRO); worth about $0.51 CAD at the time of writing. Cardholders earn CRO every time they use the card. There are different Crypto.com Visa Card products to choose from depending on what kind of rewards you want, and how quickly you want to earn them.  

    There is an entry-level card that is easy to get but has the least amount of benefits and crypto rewards.  If you want a crypto card with more features and a higher earn rate you need to buy and stake CRO for 180 days. The cards are tiered according to how many rewards and features they offer. Each one requires a different minimum amount of CRO you must buy and stake in order to qualify.

    The more rewards and perks you want from your Crypto.com Visa, the more CRO you need. The basic entry-level card is the easiest to get and doesn’t require any staking, but only offers 1% CRO rewards on purchases, no other features. The other cards require staking amounts that range from $500 to $500,000 CAD worth of CRO.

    For the staking cards, CRO cash back rewards range from 2% to 8%. Each level of card offers more enhanced reward features which include discounted or free subscription services like Netflix and Spotify, airport lounge passes, travel discounts, exclusive merchandise, and more. The highest tier card even offers a private jet membership. 

    There is no cost to sign up to Crypto.com and there are no monthly or annual card fees. The only “fee” to get a Crypto.com Visa is the staking requirement for the particular card you want, other than the entry-level Visa. There are daily automatic teller machine (ATM) withdrawal limits that differ with each card level. A full breakdown of transaction fees can be found within the Crypto.com mobile app.

    Bonus: Coinbase Visa Debit card might be coming soon to Canada

    While Coinbase is an American crypto company, it’s one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada. Coinbase launch its own crypto card, the Coinbase Visa Debit. Right now, this card is only available to US residents. However, it stands to reason that eventually, they’ll launch a crypto card for Canadians too. So check in on the Coinbase website often for updates. 

    Using a crypto card: pros and cons

    There are incredible benefits of using a crypto card. Namely, it allows you to access the funds in your crypto portfolio to spend on everyday purchases. For those that offer rewards, the additional feature is earning crypto cash back that lets you accumulate more cryptocurrency without having to use new money. Not to mention, unlike regular cash back rewards, your crypto rewards have to potential to be worth significantly more in the future. 

    All the crypto cards currently available in Canada are partnered with Visa, a well-known and widely accepted payment company. These crypto Visa cards come with the same built-in safety features as a traditional Visa credit card. Also, all these crypto cards are prepaid credit cards that behave more like debit cards. Signing up for a crypto card won’t impact your credit score, you’ll never owe a balance when you make purchases, nor will you have to pay interest. You need to preload the card with funds you already have, rather than borrowing and owing a balance on a statement. These crypto cards are accepted everywhere Visa is accepted and can be used in-store, online, and at Visa-supported ATMs. 

    You do have the personal responsibility of securing your digital assets appropriately depending on the crypto exchange platform you use, and exercising caution when trading and moving your money around. Not every cryptocurrency exchange in Canada is regulated. Unregulated exchanges come with their own inherent risks.  Also, you need to be careful when shopping with online merchants to ensure you are interacting with a legitimate website and company, but that is true no matter what kind of card you’re using. 

    Another downside to consider is the safety of your fiat holdings, like your Canadian dollars, on these platforms. Not every cryptocurrency exchange holds their customer’s fiat balance in a Canadian financial institution that provides deposit insurance, such as the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) which protects up to $100,000 of your fiat holdings. You’ll need to do your own due diligence when it comes to choosing the right cryptocurrency platform for your needs, goals, and risk profile. 

    Finally, the biggest downside to using a crypto card is the potential tax bill come income tax season. The Canada Revenue Agency considers every crypto transaction a taxable event, and will either tax it as a capital gain or business income depending on the nature of the transaction. That means there is a tax implication every time you sell your crypto holdings back into fiat in order to fund your crypto card for spending. It’s your responsibility to keep track of your crypto activity and report it to the CRA when you file your tax return.

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    Heidi Unrau is a senior finance journalist at Hardbacon. She studied Economics at the University of Winnipeg, where she fell in love with all-things-finance. At 25, she kicked-off her financial career in retail banking as a teller. She quickly progressed to become a Credit Analyst and then Private Lender. This hands-on industry experience uniquely positions her to provide expert insight on loans, credit scores, credit cards, debt, and banking services. She has been featured in publications such as WealthRocket, Scary Mommy, Credello, and Plooto. When she's not chasing after her two little boys, you'll find her hiding in the car listening to the Freakonomics podcast, or binge-watching financial crime documentaries with a bowl of ice cream. Fun Fact: Heidi has lived in five different provinces across Canada and her blood type is coffee.