A Costa Rica-issued Mastercard with two KYC levels, balances in crypto and fiat, and a fee page that doesn't say much

Updated October 2026

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CoinPay is a payment card programme run by a Costa Rican technology operator on the Mastercard network, with a balance that can be held in cryptocurrencies, US dollars, Costa Rican colones or other fiat, and a verification flow split into two levels. I went through the public pages, the terms and the support channels to build a picture of who the card is really for, what it costs and what remains unstated. The short version: the score lands at 5.3 out of 10, the card suits a narrow audience of users with both crypto and fiat in Costa Rica and the wider region, and the public materials leave large gaps that anyone deciding on this card should be aware of before they apply.

The information in this review reflects the card’s public materials as of October 28, 2026. Unofficial points, where they appear, are labelled and have not been confirmed by CoinPay.

Verdict

CoinPay earns 5.3 out of 10. The Mastercard acceptance is real, the balance flexibility is unusual and the operational basics (instant card block, spending limits, real-time notifications) are in place. What drags the score down is the lack of published numbers for almost every cost and limit, the absence of a named card issuer, the long list of countries the verification process will not accept, and the lack of any public complaint history that I could find to anchor trust.

The audience the card fits best, in my reading, is users in Costa Rica and Latin America who already hold a mix of crypto and fiat and want a regional card to spend from that balance. The audience it does not fit is anyone in the United States, Canada, Russia, Belarus, Cuba, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Crimea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu or Yemen — verification requests from those countries are stated as not accepted. And it does not fit, frankly, anyone who needs to know the price of their card before they apply, because CoinPay does not publish those numbers.

Who CoinPay will issue the card to

The headline fact is straightforward: the card is an international Mastercard debit card, so it works wherever Mastercard is accepted. CoinPay does not publish a per-country list of where the card is available, which is something to be aware of on its own, because the absence of a list is not the same as a global licence.

Where the public page is more specific is on the country side of the verification process. The site’s KYC page states that verification requests are not accepted from: Cuba, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Crimea, the United States, Canada, Ethiopia, Iraq, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu, Yemen, Russia and Belarus. That is a long list, and it overlaps heavily with the sanctioned and high-risk jurisdictions you would expect to see in a regulated programme, but it also includes countries that are not under broad sanctions (Serbia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Vanuatu, Trinidad and Tobago, Ethiopia). The criteria CoinPay uses to draw this list, whether citizenship, country of residence, or both, are not specified on the public pages, so a person who holds a passport from one of these countries but lives elsewhere is left to find out by applying.

There is also a meaningful gap between the card’s reach and the verification reach. A Costa Rica-based operator with a Mastercard programme could in principle serve a much wider set of users than the verification list suggests, but the published restriction is what the card programme will actually run against, and that is the limit that matters for an applicant.

How to get the card

The signup path runs through a Progressive Web App rather than a native mobile download. There is no App Store or Google Play listing that I could find a rating for, and CoinPay itself describes the app as installable as a PWA. In practice this means you add it to your phone’s home screen from the website rather than searching for it in a store.

The verification flow is two-tiered, and this is one of the clearer parts of the public information.

• Level 1 has no preset monetary limits, but it does not include the card. The basic identity and risk checks that the operator runs sit at this level.
• Level 2 is required for card issuance. It covers enhanced due diligence, including identity, residence and income or fund origin, and is approved by CoinPay. Accepted document types, the proof-of-address format and the minimum age are not stated in the public materials. Processing time and the specific reasons a Level 2 application can be rejected are also not stated.

After verification, the card itself comes in two forms: a virtual Mastercard issued on request inside the app, and a physical Mastercard delivered to the address on the verified account. The currency the card is denominated in is not stated, which matters because a card denominated in colones is a different product from a card denominated in US dollars, even if both carry the Mastercard mark. Delivery countries, time and replacement cost are not stated for the physical card.

What is also worth saying clearly: the operator does not hold or custody user funds. Per the terms, financial providers do. That puts CoinPay in a different category from a custodian, but it also means the user is dealing with a chain of parties (operator, financial service provider, card issuer) where only one of them is named in the public materials.

What the card really costs: fees, conversion and everyday spend

This is the section where the public information is thinnest, and it is the section that should drive most of your decision.

The site’s wording on cost is, in full: “service costs are charged, including sending and distribution of cards.” No numbers. No schedule. No list. The same applies to the fees section: not stated. ATM withdrawals are confirmed as supported, but the fee and any monthly allowance are not stated. The only published limit information is that Level 1 has no preset monetary limits and excludes cards, and that at Level 2 CoinPay may adjust operational limits at its discretion. The user can set their own spending limits in the app, which is useful for controlling exposure but is not a substitute for a published fee schedule.

To make this concrete, here is the costs table with the information CoinPay does and does not publish.

Walking through a few everyday payments illustrates what “not stated” means in practice.

Buying coffee with a crypto-funded balance. You hold USDT in your CoinPay account. At the till, the merchant prices in colones. The card converts USDT (or your chosen denomination) into colones, then routes through Mastercard to the merchant. The conversion margin CoinPay takes, the FX margin Mastercard takes, and any extra spread above the mid-market rate are all unpublished. You will see a number on the receipt, but you will not be able to reconstruct the components.

Paying an online subscription in US dollars. You hold USDC, the merchant is priced in USD. A conversion happens if your balance is not already in USD, and possibly again if the card settles in a currency other than USD. The card currency is not stated. A 3-D Secure step may be required, in which case the Mastercard Identity Check flow will appear, but the issuer is not named publicly, so the path of a dispute is also unclear.

Withdrawing local cash from an ATM. The card supports ATM withdrawals, the card is on Mastercard, so most ATMs in a supported country will accept it. The fee CoinPay charges and any cap on free withdrawals are not stated. Your bank’s ATM surcharge, if any, is a separate question and is set by the ATM owner, not by CoinPay.

The honest summary: the cost section is the part I would not be comfortable signing up for on the strength of the public materials. If you decide to apply, treat the first month as a calibration period and read every receipt against your account balance to reconstruct what you are actually being charged.

How to top the card up

Top-up starts from the account balance inside the app. The published wording is that the balance can be held “in cryptocurrencies, dollars, colones or other fiat.” That is an unusual combination for a single account, and it implies the platform is willing to receive either crypto deposits or fiat deposits, but the level of detail stops there.

The coins and networks CoinPay accepts are not listed on the public site. For anyone holding USDT, USDC, BTC or ETH, this means you cannot tell from the public page whether your coin on your network will be accepted, which network to choose to send it on, or how long the credit takes. There is a separate “Reception and withdrawal” service listed in the app that operates like a bank-style transfer, but its terms are not stated either.

For anyone who has moved funds into a crypto card before, this matters in a concrete way. A stablecoin deposit sent on the wrong network, or to an address of a network CoinPay does not support, can be lost in the sense that blockchain transfers are irreversible and recovery depends on CoinPay’s support team making a manual effort with no guarantee of success. The general background on stablecoins and networks (USDC and USDT dominate the market, USDC is natively supported on a long list of networks, USDT is on several including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, Polygon and Avalanche) gives you a sense of what is plausible, but it does not tell you which of these CoinPay actually accepts.

A second practical point: because the balance can also be held in colones or US dollars, top-up is not necessarily a crypto transfer. A bank transfer in colones or dollars from a Costa Rican account is a likely path for users in the region, and the “Reception and withdrawal” service in the app may be the way that is wired. The public materials do not lay out the bank details, the cut-off times or the fees for that path.

Paying with the card every day

In the day-to-day sense, what CoinPay offers is a Mastercard — physical and virtual — drawn on the in-app balance. That covers in-store contactless and chip payments, online purchases, and ATM cash withdrawals. The virtual card is issued on request in the app, which means you can have a card number for online use without waiting for a physical card to arrive.

Apple Pay and Google Pay are not addressed in the public materials. This is a real gap for a card that aims at everyday use, because mobile wallet support is, for many users, the default way to pay in 2026. If tokenised mobile wallet support is a requirement, that is something to test with support before you commit.

Real-time notifications and an in-app instant block are both confirmed, which are the standard everyday safeguards. You can also change your PIN from the app and set your own spending limits, which is a useful control if you are loading a balance that includes volatile crypto you would rather not have spent in a single tap.

Where the everyday experience can hit a wall is at the merchant side. Mastercard’s rules and the issuer’s policy both shape what you can do: merchants in some categories (notably gambling, which sits on MCC 7995) are commonly blocked by policy, foreign-issued cards can be declined by merchants that rely on Address Verification Service (which is mainly available in the US, Canada and the UK), and a decline can leave a hold on the balance for up to 7 days even if no money actually changes hands. None of this is specific to CoinPay — it is the texture of paying with a card issued by a small programme outside the country you are in.

What can go wrong

A few specific risks to keep in mind, separate from the general category background.

The verification list is a hard wall. If you are a citizen or resident of any of the 18 countries CoinPay lists, you will not get the card. The criteria the list is applied to is not stated, so the only safe assumption is that if your documents place you in any of those countries, the application will not proceed.

The card issuer is not named. The public materials identify Raw Industries CCM S.R.L. (the technology operator) and JPC Solutions S.R.L. (financial services), but the entity that actually issues the Mastercard is not stated. For dispute resolution, for chargeback rights and for the question of who is on the other end of a contested transaction, this matters. CoinPay’s terms do cap the operator’s liability at the fees paid for the transaction, which is a narrower commitment than you would see from a regulated bank.

No published complaint history. I did not find a Trustpilot page or a Reddit thread for CoinPay.cr in my search; the results returned were unrelated companies. That does not mean the service has no users, but it does mean that the public complaint signal a reviewer usually relies on — the patterns of slow refunds, account freezes, support responsiveness over time — is not there to weigh.

Support is real but bounded. The listed channels are WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and in-app chat, with replies “within a few minutes” on the in-app chat. There is no phone support, no email address and no stated service hours. The site itself is published in Spanish, English and Portuguese, which is consistent with a Costa Rica + Latin America audience.

Two KYC levels, with Level 2 discretionary. At Level 2, CoinPay may adjust operational limits at its discretion. The threshold at which those limits kick in and the way they interact with a balance that includes crypto are not explained. This is a place where a user could find their account working fine one week and constrained the next, on the operator’s call.

Regulatory posture is national, not regional. The operator is registered in Costa Rica as a Virtual Asset Service Provider; no licence numbers are published, and there is no MiCA authorisation on the public record. For users in the European Union, this means the protections that come with an EU-licensed issuer (segregated funds, passporting across the EEA, recourse to a national competent authority) are not in play. For US users specifically, the card is not available at all.

What to take instead

Three alternatives come up naturally against CoinPay, all with different trade-offs.

International Visa Card (6.7 / 10). A US-issued Platinum Visa card with a published fee structure: virtual card issuance is $5 one-time, there is no maintenance fee on the Classic plan, and Pro and Max plans are $9.00 and $19.00 per month. Card use in USD is free across all plans, and foreign-currency use carries a “Visa exchange rate + 2% FX fee.” Deposits in USDC or USDT into the USD account are free at 1:1; the supported networks are not stated. The country list is comparable in length to CoinPay’s (Belarus, mainland China, North Korea, Cuba, India, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam) but is applied by residence or registration, which is more clearly stated. The catch: a physical card is listed as “Coming soon” in the materials I read, so right now this is effectively a virtual card.

UNi Card (6.1 / 10). A multicurrency card on the Mastercard network that spends from a UNi.Global account balance. The fee disclosure is cleaner than CoinPay’s: “no annual fee or foreign transaction fee,” with assets converted at “live OTC (Over-the-Counter) rates” and “no hidden exchange fees.” Spend-to-Earn rewards are advertised up to 3%. The downside: the country list and KYC requirements are not stated in the public materials, and issuance fees are not stated either, so the cleanliness of the fee page does not come with a country-by-country picture of who can actually get one.

Whop Cards (5.2 / 10). A Visa programme that works anywhere Visa is accepted, with a published “no extra fees” page but no numbers for issuance, monthly, conversion or FX fees. Available to consumers in 31 US states and businesses in 41 US states; unsupported countries include Belarus, mainland China, Cuba, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam. The card is backed by stablecoin collateral from a linked wallet, with the coins and networks not stated. A 5% cashback programme is running at select merchants (Uber at the time of writing, with more planned), which is the most concrete reward on offer among the three alternatives — though the payout currency and conditions are not stated.

The short version of the comparison: if published fees and a US-issued card are what you want, the International Visa Card is the cleanest of the three. If the priority is a multicurrency Mastercard with a simpler fee page and a reward component, UNi Card is closer to a turnkey product (subject to confirming country availability). If a US card with a cashback programme matters more than fee transparency, Whop Cards has the most concrete reward in the set, with the usual caveat that the fee numbers are thin.

Who I would recommend the card to

I would recommend CoinPay to a fairly narrow reader. If you live in Costa Rica or elsewhere in Latin America, you already hold a mix of crypto and fiat, you want a regional Mastercard to spend from that balance, and you are comfortable testing a small amount through the app to read the actual fees off your own statements before you commit a larger balance, then CoinPay is a reasonable fit. The two-tier verification, the ability to set your own spending limits and the instant in-app block all line up with a cautious user.

I would not recommend CoinPay to readers in any of the 18 countries the verification list covers, to readers who need a published fee schedule before they apply, to readers who require Apple Pay or Google Pay without first confirming support, and to readers who are looking for a card issued under a major regulatory regime with a named issuer and a clear dispute path. For those readers, the three alternatives above (and any other card with a transparent fee page, a named issuer and a published country list) will serve better.

A final practical note. The right way to use a card whose fee page is this thin is to start small. Load a small balance, run a few small purchases, withdraw a small amount from an ATM, then read every receipt against the in-app ledger. If the actual fees match what you can live with, scale up. If they do not, you have not exposed a meaningful balance to a fee structure you did not agree to in writing.

Frequently asked questions

What is CoinPay card?

CoinPay is a Mastercard debit card programme run from Costa Rica, with a balance that can be held in cryptocurrencies, US dollars, Costa Rican colones or other fiat. A physical and a virtual card are both offered, and the virtual card is issued on request inside the app.

How does CoinPay card work?

You hold a balance in the in-app account, you set your own spending limits and you spend from that balance at any merchant that accepts Mastercard, or withdraw local cash at an ATM. The card is supported by a physical and a virtual Mastercard, and the operator does not hold or custody user funds.

Is CoinPay a bank?

No. The technology operator is Raw Industries CCM S.R.L. in Costa Rica, registered as a Virtual Asset Service Provider, and financial services are provided by JPC Solutions S.R.L. The card issuer is not named in the public materials, which is a meaningful distinction from a regulated bank.

Who owns CoinPay?

The technology operator is Raw Industries CCM S.R.L. in Costa Rica, with JPC Solutions S.R.L. providing financial services. The card-issuing entity behind the Mastercard programme is not stated on the public pages.

Is CoinPay card available in the United States?

No. The verification list published on CoinPay’s KYC page names the United States among the countries whose verification requests are not accepted. The basis (citizenship or residence) is not specified.

Does CoinPay card require KYC?

Yes. Level 1 covers basic identity and risk checks with no preset monetary limits, and Level 2 is required for card issuance. Level 2 covers enhanced due diligence on identity, residence and income or fund origin, with approval by CoinPay. Accepted documents are not stated.

How do I top up CoinPay card?

Top-up is from the in-app account balance, which can be funded in cryptocurrencies, US dollars, colones or other fiat. The specific coins and networks accepted are not listed on the public site, and a separate “Reception and withdrawal” service in the app handles bank-style transfers with terms that are not stated.

How much does CoinPay card cost?

The public materials do not state issuance, monthly, conversion, FX or ATM fees. The site says only that “service costs are charged, including sending and distribution of cards.” Treat the first month as a calibration period and reconstruct the actual cost from your own statements.

Is CoinPay card safe?

The card offers standard operational safeguards, including an in-app instant block, PIN change, user-set spending limits and real-time notifications, and the operator does not custody user funds. What is missing from the public record is a named card issuer, a public complaint history and a published regulatory licence number, which are the usual signals a reviewer looks for to anchor trust.

How do I delete my CoinPay account?

The public pages do not lay out an account-deletion path or a stated data-retention period, and there is no phone or email support channel listed. In-app chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger are the published support channels, with replies “within a few minutes” on the in-app chat.

Content created by the «cryptocardtested» team