Krak card, tested from signup to everyday spending

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

Krak is the consumer payments app from Kraken, the long-running cryptocurrency exchange. The Krak card is its Mastercard debit product, available as a virtual card, a free plastic card in orange or black, or a 16-gram stainless-steel metal card for customers who hold a meaningful balance across Krak and Kraken. You fund it from a balance held inside the Krak Everyday account, and the card pays out in more than 600 currencies through Mastercard’s network. The headline numbers look generous: no monthly or annual fees, no FX markup, and a cashback rate of up to 2% in cash or crypto. The friction, as we’ll see, is in the eligibility, the spread, and the fact that what you spend is still controlled by a custodian.

The conditions described here are current as of October 28, 2026.

Verdict

Krak earns 7.1 out of 10 in my review. The card itself is well-built, cheap to run, and pays cashback, but the score reflects the country restrictions, the thin complaint record available, and the variable spread that quietly sits on top of every crypto-funded purchase.

The Krak card suits UK and EU residents who already use Kraken, want cashback paid in crypto or cash, and don’t mind a custodial setup. It does not suit people outside the UK and EU, anyone uncomfortable with crypto being held by a third party, or those who need transparent all-in pricing on every transaction.

The detail behind each of these scores is in the sections that follow. If you only have a minute, jump to the costs table and the everyday-use section to see whether the card actually fits how you pay.

Who will they give you the card to?

Right now, the card page says it’s “currently available to residents of the UK and the EU, with more countries coming soon.” The footnote on the same page adds that geographic restrictions apply. That covers the headline, but there’s a wrinkle worth flagging: a Krak help article about personal accounts lists UK, EEA and US residents as eligible, which is a slightly different list. The card page is what governs the card itself, so treat UK and EU as the working answer for now and watch the help article if you’re in the US.

Two things follow from the residence rule. First, this is a residence-based product, not a nationality-based one — the question Krak asks is where you actually live, not what passport you hold, though the issuer will still screen both. Second, being a UK or EU resident doesn’t guarantee you’ll be issued a card: the issuer, Monavate, has its own customer checks on top of Krak’s.

Beyond residence, you need a verified Krak account, and the KYC process is what unlocks card ordering. The card’s own documentation only spells out that “you must have a verified Krak account with completed KYC (identity verification)”; the specific documents, age threshold and proof-of-address are not stated on the card page. What is stated on related pages is that the applicant must be at least 18, and that Monavate has to verify your identity before it will issue a card. The processing time for verification and the named verification tiers are not published in the pages I could read.

If you’ve already cleared KYC on Kraken for trading, you’re most of the way there. If you haven’t, the practical sequence is: open a Krak account, complete KYC, then order a card from inside the app. The exact list of accepted documents isn’t on the public card page, so check the in-app KYC flow to see what Krak asks for in your country.

How to get it

The signup path is short. You start with a Krak account, complete identity verification, and then order a card. The virtual card is available within minutes of being approved; the physical card is shipped free, in either orange or black. The metal card is the third option: a 16-gram stainless-steel piece that requires you to hold an average of GBP 50,000 or EUR 50,000 in combined assets across Krak, Kraken and Kraken Pro.

The card is a Mastercard debit product, so it runs wherever Mastercard is accepted, and it spends in 600+ currencies. That headline is fine, but the actual settlement currency is fixed per card: UK cards settle in GBP, EEA cards in EUR. The card payments settle in the card’s primary currency, with FX passed through at the Mastercard rate with no markup from Krak — but, again, the spread on the crypto side is a separate question, and I’ll get to that in the costs section.

For delivery, the physical card is free and ships to the UK and EEA. The shipping time isn’t stated on the card page. Replacement of a lost or damaged card costs $4.99, or the equivalent in the card’s currency, charged by Monavate. One unofficial source (CryptoCardHub, 11 Aug 2026) puts normal plastic card delivery at “within 14 business days” and the metal-card replacement at GBP 60 or EUR 60, but I couldn’t confirm those numbers on Krak’s own pages, so treat them as unofficial.

A practical note: virtual and physical cards are managed separately inside the app, so cancelling one doesn’t cancel the other. If you want a clean break, you cancel each in turn, or contact Krak Support.

What it really costs: Fees, spreads, and the fine print

This is where the Krak card looks strongest on paper, and where the only real asterisk lives. The card is free to order. There are no monthly or annual fees. Krak itself charges “zero transaction fees, FX fees, ATM withdrawal fees or monthly fees on your spend.” For anyone used to traditional bank cards with FX markups and monthly account fees, that’s a clean bill.

The asterisk is the spread. Krak states that “a variable spread applies when spending across assets,” and the size of that spread isn’t published. A spread is the gap between the market price and the price Krak actually uses when it converts your crypto into the currency the merchant sees. It’s the cost you pay to convert on the Krak side, on top of any network fee the blockchain charges for the deposit that loaded your Everyday account. The card FAQ doesn’t put a number on it, so if the spread is the deal-breaker for you, the only way to see what you’re paying is to make a small test payment and compare what came out of your crypto balance against the price at the time on a public chart.

The costs at a glance:

To make those numbers concrete, here are three everyday scenarios and what fees apply.

Buying lunch in a London café with a UK card paid from a GBP Everyday balance: no fees. The card settles in GBP, the merchant receives GBP, Krak’s side is fee-free. This is the cleanest case and the one Krak’s pricing is built around.

Buying a coffee in Berlin with an EEA card paid from a EUR Everyday balance funded by selling a small amount of USDC: no Krak transaction or FX fee, but the spread on the USDC-to-EUR conversion applies. Whatever Krak quotes at the moment of sale is what you pay. Network fees for the deposit that originally loaded the Everyday account are separate and charged by the blockchain.

Withdrawing cash from an ATM in a country outside the UK or EEA, paid from an EEA card: Krak does not charge an ATM fee, but the ATM operator may charge its own fee, which you’ll typically see on-screen before you confirm. The amount Krak passes through is at the Mastercard rate; again, any spread on the crypto-to-fiat side is a Krak-side cost, not a Mastercard cost.

A note on the limits the card page doesn’t spell out. Krak’s pages say “daily, weekly, and monthly limits apply to both card spending and ATM withdrawals” and that the limits “vary by region and are shown in the app.” Unofficial reporting suggests contactless thresholds before PIN of GBP 300 in the UK and a cumulative EUR 150 in the EEA, with up to two virtual and two physical active cards at a time, and a cap of three virtual card creations per rolling 30 days, but I couldn’t confirm those numbers on official pages, so treat them as unofficial. Hotels and car rentals may also place an authorisation hold of 10-20% above the bill, and unused holds can take up to seven days to clear. That’s standard card-network behaviour rather than something specific to Krak.

Top up

The Krak card doesn’t have a balance of its own. It spends from your Krak Everyday account, and the Everyday account is the multi-currency wallet inside the Krak app. The order in which currencies get used is up to you: in the app you set a Spend Order, and Krak draws on the assets in that order when a transaction comes through. Krak’s pages say 600+ assets are offered, but not all of them are available for card spending — unsupported ones show up in the Spend Order as “Unavailable.” Fiat balances can be spent directly, which is the cheapest path if you already have the right currency in the Everyday account.

The deposit mechanics are what determine how you get money into the Everyday account in the first place. Krak’s card documentation is light here: the card page says you can deposit “at any time in the app,” and that some deposit methods carry a three-day withdrawal hold. Help articles for fiat funding via Plaid in EUR and GBP and via PayPal exist, but the deposit fee and minimum aren’t stated on the pages I could read. Unofficial reporting (CryptoCardHub, 11 Aug 2026) cites a near-instant card deposit fee of GBP/EUR 0.25 plus 3.75%, but again, I couldn’t confirm that on Krak’s pages.

There are a few practical implications. If you deposit crypto, the network you choose matters: a deposit on a network Krak doesn’t support, or to an address on the wrong network, can be lost or require manual support recovery with no guarantee. Stablecoin deposits need to land on a network Krak accepts, and on a network that has enough liquidity for the asset in question. USDC on Tron, for example, isn’t a native option because Circle stopped supporting USDC on Tron in February 2024; ERC-20 USDC on Ethereum, or USDC on Solana, Base, Polygon PoS, Avalanche or Arbitrum, are the more standard options. If your wallet has USDT but no ETH, an ERC-20 transfer will fail because Ethereum gas is paid in ETH, not in the token being sent. None of this is specific to Krak — it’s how on-chain deposits work — but it determines whether your top-up actually lands.

The card’s FAQ doesn’t describe a direct way to withdraw the card balance back to a bank account or to external crypto, beyond cancelling the card by contacting Krak Support. If you cancel the agreement within six months of opening, a fee may apply. Closing the underlying Kraken E-Wallet terminates the Monavate agreement, and the redemption of any remaining crypto is governed by Kraken’s terms, which I didn’t read for this review.

Paying with it every day

Once the card is funded, daily use is straightforward. Apple Pay is supported; a Krak help article says the card can also be added to Google Pay, even though the card page itself doesn’t mention it. The blocked merchant categories aren’t publicly listed. Users can, however, block specific currencies from being spent through the Spend Order, which is a useful control if you don’t want a particular token touched by the card.

Rewards are the main carrot. Krak pays up to 2% cashback in cash or crypto, with the rate depending on the average assets you hold across Krak, Kraken and Kraken Pro. On travel booked through Krak Concierge, the rate goes up to 4%. The cashback rate, the average-balance thresholds, and whether the rate is paid in cash, in a stablecoin, or in a specific token are details that the public page doesn’t fully spell out; you’ll see your current rate in the app.

The mobile app is the operational centre. It’s on iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play); the apps themselves aren’t reviewed on the official Krak pages. From the app you can order a card, set your Spend Order, see transactions, freeze, unfreeze or replace a physical card instantly, and open a dispute. Real-time transaction monitoring and data encryption are listed as security features; the card page doesn’t mention two-factor authentication, which is a gap worth flagging — for a custodial product, 2FA is table-stakes.

For disputes and refunds, the in-app path is “Get help with this transaction” on the affected payment. Refunds return to the Everyday account in the card’s primary currency; if a refund came from a merchant who paid you back in a different currency, it’s that currency Krak returns, not an automatic conversion back to whatever crypto you originally spent. Complaint handling timelines are different in the UK and the EEA: the UK is acknowledged within 24 hours with a final response within 15 business days (extendable by 20), and the EEA is 15 business days (35 if delayed). There’s a 14-day cooling-off period during which you can get fees refunded. A separate Kraken help article puts the wider dispute window at 45-60 days, which is longer than the 15 business days the card terms cite for an initial response — the 45-60 days is the overall time a chargeback may take, not a guaranteed resolution window.

For travel, the Mastercard acceptance network covers most countries, and the FX is passed through at the Mastercard rate with no Krak markup on the fiat side. That makes the card a reasonable travel card for a UK or EU resident, with the usual caveat that the spread still applies if you’re spending crypto, and the card’s primary currency is fixed to GBP or EUR.

What can go wrong

The risks on the Krak card fall into three buckets: regulatory and counterparty risk on the issuer side, operational risk from how the platform treats deposits, and the usual risks of a custodial product.

The card is issued by Monavate in the UK, which is registered with the FCA (FRN 901097; company number 12472532), and by Monavate UAB in Lithuania for EEA cards, which holds licence number 92. Krak itself is the consumer app of Kraken. That gives you two regulated e-money institutions in different jurisdictions, and a programme manager (Krak) sitting on top. One third-party aggregator (penchan.co, undated and unverified) reports a Bank of Lithuania fine or warning for Monavate UAB on AML and safeguarding grounds; I couldn’t confirm that on an official page, and penchan.co is not a primary source, so treat it as unverified.

Operationally, the visible failure modes are around deposits and account state. Unofficial third-party reports describe card payments failing for several hours at a time in the UK and EEA, and automatic freezes after small transfers from addresses that the system flags. Unofficial reporting from July 2026 describes an 11-day security review that suspended deposits, withdrawals and card use, with Kraken support later saying it “dropped the ball” on the case. I couldn’t independently verify either of these on Krak’s own pages, so they are unconfirmed but consistent with the pattern of risk you accept when a single platform controls your funds, your card and your fiat on-ramp.

Trustpilot’s data for krak.app is reported as 3.8 out of 5 from 34 reviews or 1.9 from 126 reviews, depending on the source — the two figures don’t match and I couldn’t reconcile them, so the only honest read is that there’s a small and inconsistent review base. The themes that come through the reviews are accounts being restricted after a bank transfer or a deposit, funds becoming inaccessible, generic escalation replies without a clear timeline, a UK cardholder reporting terminals that asked for a signature instead of a PIN and a delayed refund, and slow responses to unauthorised-transaction claims. Those themes are exactly what the general crypto-card background suggests should be a red flag: when the same entity holds your crypto, your fiat and your card, an account freeze can take all three offline at once.

On the security side, you can freeze, unfreeze or replace a physical card instantly in the app, and the platform runs real-time transaction monitoring and data encryption. The card page doesn’t mention two-factor authentication, which is a gap. Unofficial reporting says crypto remains custodial with Kraken/Krak, and that fiat is held in segregated accounts at regulated institutions; UK e-money balances aren’t covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and the EEA wallet has no deposit-guarantee coverage. None of that is unusual for a crypto card, but it is the right thing to know going in.

Support is in-app, 24/7, with a Support Center. Languages, email and phone aren’t stated. If the platform is the operational bottleneck, the lack of a published phone line and email is itself a risk: when in-app support can’t help, there’s no obvious escalation path outside the platform.

The risk list in one place:

• Country and citizenship restrictions can change without much notice.
• The spread on crypto-funded purchases is variable and not published.
• Account restrictions triggered by incoming transfers can lock you out of both crypto and the card.
• The card page does not list 2FA among security features.
• UK e-money balances are not FSCS-covered; EEA wallet balances have no deposit-guarantee coverage.
• The complaint record is thin and mixed, and reviews describe slow, generic escalation.

What to take instead

If the Krak card doesn’t fit — and for many readers it won’t, simply because of the country list — these are three other crypto cards I’ve looked at, each with a different shape. None of them is a drop-in replacement; the trade-offs change depending on what you care about.

The Bybit Card is the most fully documented of the three. It’s a multi-region product, and the cards page is explicit: “This product is not meant for European Economic Area customers. All European Economic Area customer participation is strictly prohibited.” For a UK or EU reader, that excludes it, but for a reader in any of Bybit’s supported regions it’s a reasonable comparator, with a tiered cashback system that pays out in USDT, a Pay Later instalment bonus, and a welcome offer of 10% cashback up to 110 USDT in the first 30 days. The trade-off is fees: a 0.9% crypto conversion fee on top of the One-Click Sell rate in most regions (0.5% in Argentina, not supported in Peru), a 2% FX fee in the main regions (7% in Argentina, 1.5% in Brazil, 1% in Peru), and various card-issuance fees that vary by region. That fee load is heavier than Krak’s, but the cashback caps are larger, and the rewards structure is more legible than the average-balance model Krak uses.

The Young Card and MSX are harder to compare because their official pages don’t publish the same set of facts Krak does. Young’s distinguishing feature is the YNG-token cashback, which is a play for people who want exposure to a specific token, not a flat cashback. MSX is even more opaque from a public-information standpoint; I couldn’t pin down the card form, the fee structure or the rewards shape on a page I could verify.

For a UK or EU reader, the realistic “instead” list is narrower than this table suggests. If you’re inside the EEA, your crypto-card options shrink considerably: Bybit is out, and the geographic lists of other programmes get thinner. If you’re in the UK, you have Krak and a handful of other UK-issued programmes, and the choice mostly comes down to fee shape, cashback mechanics, and whether you already use the parent platform.

Who I would recommend it to

I’d recommend the Krak card to UK and EU residents who already use Kraken or Krak, want a single-app experience for buying, holding, spending and earning cashback, and are comfortable with a custodial setup. The free card, the absence of monthly fees, the 190-country ATM network, and the up to 2% cashback make it a strong everyday card for someone whose primary crypto balance already sits at Kraken. The metal card is a reasonable upgrade if you have the balance, and the virtual card is fast enough to use inside Apple Pay the same day you sign up.

I would not recommend it to anyone outside the UK and EU, at least not until the country list widens. I would also be cautious about it if you’re a large-balance user who’s sensitive to the spread, because the spread isn’t published and the only way to size it is empirical. And I’d be cautious if your primary need is a backup card in case your main bank account has problems, because the same entity holds your crypto, your fiat balance and your card, so a single account action can take all three offline.

If you’re in the UK or EU, the practical decision is between Krak and a UK or EU-issued card from a more traditional payments brand. The Krak card’s edge is the cashback and the no-monthly-fee setup. Its disadvantage is the spread, the country restrictions and the thin complaint record. On balance, for an existing Kraken user with a moderate balance, the Krak card is a sensible primary card; for a higher-balance user who wants tighter control over conversion costs, the spread opacity is enough to make me look at alternatives before committing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Krak card?

The Krak card is a Mastercard debit card from Krak, the consumer app of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange. It’s available as a virtual card, a free plastic card, or a 16-gram stainless-steel metal card for customers who hold an average of GBP 50,000 or EUR 50,000 across Krak, Kraken and Kraken Pro.

How does the Krak card work?

The card spends from your Krak Everyday account, which is the multi-currency wallet inside the Krak app. You set a Spend Order in the app, and when you make a payment the card draws on the assets in that order, converting crypto to the card’s primary currency (GBP for UK cards, EUR for EEA cards) at the Mastercard rate.

Is Krak a bank?

No. Krak is the consumer payments app of Kraken, and the card is issued by Monavate in the UK (FCA FRN 901097) and by Monavate UAB in Lithuania (licence no. 92). The Krak Everyday account is an e-money account, not a bank account, and the funds held in it are not covered by the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme or by an EEA deposit-guarantee scheme.

Who owns Krak?

Krak is the consumer brand of Kraken, the cryptocurrency exchange. The card itself is issued by Monavate and Monavate UAB; Krak acts as the programme manager and the user-facing app.

Is the Krak card available in the United States?

The card page says the card is “currently available to residents of the UK and the EU.” A separate Krak help article on personal accounts lists UK, EEA and US residents as eligible for personal accounts, but the card page is the controlling source for the card, so treat UK and EU as the working answer. Check the in-app flow for the latest position if you’re in the US.

How do I get the Krak card?

Open a Krak account, complete KYC, and order a card from inside the app. The virtual card is available within minutes; the physical card is shipped free in orange or black. You need to be at least 18, and Monavate has to verify your identity before a card is issued.

Does the Krak card require KYC?

Yes. The card documentation says you must have a verified Krak account with completed identity verification before you can order a card. The specific documents, age threshold and proof-of-address are not stated on the public card page, so check the in-app KYC flow to see what Krak asks for in your country.

Is the Krak card free?

The card itself is free to order, and there are no monthly or annual fees. Krak does not charge transaction fees, FX fees or ATM fees. The costs to watch for are a variable spread on crypto-funded purchases (size not published) and a $4.99 replacement fee charged by Monavate. Third-party ATM operators may also charge their own ATM fees, which are usually shown on-screen before you confirm.

How do I add the Krak card to Apple Wallet or Google Pay?

The card is supported on Apple Pay. A Krak help article says the card can also be added to Google Pay, even though the main card page doesn’t mention it. In practice, the steps are: open the Krak app, go to the card, and tap the option to add to wallet; your device then walks you through the wallet’s standard verification step.

How do I top up the Krak card?

The card doesn’t have a balance of its own; it draws on the Krak Everyday account. You deposit into the Everyday account from inside the app — by transferring crypto from another wallet, by using fiat funding via Plaid (EUR or GBP) or PayPal, or by selling crypto inside Krak. Some deposit methods carry a three-day withdrawal hold, and the deposit fee and minimum aren’t stated on the pages I could read.

Content created by the «cryptocardtested» team