What the Bipa card costs, what it pays back, and where the fine print goes quiet

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

You have probably landed here because you want a card that spends crypto — or spends reais and pays you back in Bitcoin — and you have a problem that ordinary banks have not solved for you. That is exactly the audience Bipa is built for, and I want to be fair about it: this is a real Brazilian card with real Bitcoin rewards, not a toy wallet pretending to be a bank. It also has a genuinely useful top-up list and, as far as I could find, no public pile of complaints.

But I am not going to hand you a brochure. My score for Bipa is 5.9 out of 10. The reason is not that the card is bad. It is that the most expensive half of a card’s cost — what happens when you spend outside Brazil, what a bank machine charges, what the daily ceiling is — is simply not published on the pages I could read. You can find the plan fees to the centavo. You cannot find the foreign-exchange number. That asymmetry should shape your decision.

So here is the shape of this review. Who will actually be given the card. How you apply. What it costs in practice, plan fee by plan fee, with the gaps named as gaps. How you load it, including the one network trap that catches people out. What daily use feels like. What can go wrong. And what to look at instead if the missing numbers decide for you.

*Conditions described here are current as of October 28, 2026.*

The verdict: 5.9 out of 10

Bipa suits you if you live in Brazil, you want to be paid back in Bitcoin on what you already spend, you are comfortable holding money with a Brazilian platform regulated as a payment institution, and you mostly pay for things at home. The Satsback is the whole proposition: you spend reais, a slice of it comes back as Bitcoin, and on the top plans the amount is meaningful rather than decorative.

It does not suit you if your income is in another currency and you will be spending across borders, because you cannot read the FX rate before you commit. It does not suit you if anonymity matters to you — a selfie and a document are part of signing up, and Bipa may re-verify your data at any time. And it does not suit you if you want a card that works everywhere without exceptions, because some transactions classified by the payment processor as money transfers are blocked.

One more thing before we go further, and it is the single most useful thing in this review: the rule about USDT and Solana. USDT works on Ethereum (ERC-20) and Polygon only. Solana is not accepted for USDT. If you hold USDT on Solana — and a lot of people do — sending it to Bipa from there is the single easiest way to lose that money permanently. Read the top-up section before you transfer anything.

Will they give you the card?

Here I have to disappoint you with an absence. The card’s own public pages do not state who is eligible. Not a country list, not a residency requirement, not an age rule beyond the general adult requirement that applies to prepaid and debit cards. There is nothing to quote because nothing is published.

What I can tell you is the shape of it. Bipa is a Brazilian company. The plans are priced in reais. The credit card is underwritten on Brazilian risk criteria. Everything about the product — the pricing, the support hours, the language, the Pix integration — is built for someone living and spending in Brazil. So the honest answer to “will they give me the card?” is: if you are a Brazilian resident with a Brazilian address, the evidence points strongly to yes; if you are anywhere else, the pages give you nothing to go on, and you should treat it as a Brazilian product that has not said it is open to you.

The credit side adds its own gate. The credit limit is not a number you pick — it comes out of an analysis, and approval depends on that prior analysis. So even inside Brazil, the credit card is not guaranteed at signup; you apply and the limit is decided for you.

The card is issued by Stark Bank S.A. Instituicao de Pagamento, which Bipa names as the institution responsible for card issuance. Plans are offered with BIPA Instituicao de Pagamento Ltda (CNPJ 40.910.463/0001-05). Behind the app sits Bipa Intermediação de Ativos Digitais LTDA (CNPJ 37.008.710/0001-78), founded in 2020 in Brazil and described by the company as both a payment institution and a virtual asset service provider, regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil — that description is the company’s own claim.

This is worth pausing on for anyone who asks “is Bipa a bank?” The honest answer is no, and the structure explains why. The card programme sits with an issuer; Bipa manages the crypto side and the app you actually touch. The same split shows up across this whole product category: a network (Mastercard here) routes the payment, an institution licensed to issue under that network’s licence holds the programme, and the crypto brand is often just the front end. If the crypto company behind your card is not the entity that issued the card, then the rules on your card live in documents the crypto company wrote — and you should read those, as I explain next.

How to get it

The application is a standard mobile sign-up: a selfie plus an identity document. That is the whole of what is stated. The verification levels, the list of accepted documents and the processing time are not given on the pages I read — another gap rather than a feature.

Two things to know before you start, because they are the ones that cause trouble later.

First, Bipa may ask you for updated registration data periodically, and both Bipa and Stark Bank may verify your data at any time. False information can lead to suspension and cancellation of the card. That is a real risk to weigh if you were thinking of putting anything on this you would rather not have linked.

Second, the physical card is not included everywhere. On Pro and Max the physical card is free. On Free and Plus it carries a fee, and the amount is not stated. The delivery time is given as “per the periods informed by support channels” — that is, ask them. The address is Brazilian.

So the practical decision is not “shall I apply” but “which plan”. Here is what you are choosing between, because the tiers decide both the card cost and the reward rate:

• Free — R$0 per month, Mastercard Gold tier, Satsback 0%, support level Normal.
• Plus — R$14.90 per month, Mastercard Gold tier, Satsback 0.5%, support level Normal.
• Pro — R$49.90 per month, Mastercard Platinum tier, Satsback 1%, physical card free, support Preferencial.
• Max — R$99.90 per month, Mastercard Black tier, Satsback 1.5%, physical card free, support Concierge via WhatsApp.

There is both a prepaid card and a credit card, plus a virtual card that exists alongside the physical one. The credit card has its own character: Bipa Crédito lets you buy Bitcoin on credit in up to 3 instalments. That is a genuinely unusual feature and it comes with the usual accompaniment — the credit limit is set by Bipa’s risk criteria and the Card Terms, and the amounts are not listed anywhere on the page.

What it really costs, in Fees and in the small print

Start with the honest structure of the cost. There are two kinds: the plan fee, which is published to the centavo, and everything else, which is not.

Plan fees per month: Free R$0, Plus R$14.90, Pro R$49.90, Max R$99.90. The fee can be waived by usage — Bipa credits part of it back depending on how much you spend, but the exact thresholds are not given on the pages I read. There is no plan cancellation fee and no card cancellation fee, which is unusually clean and worth saying out loud.

Here is the costs table. Read the “not stated” cells as the real finding:

Three ordinary payments, and which fees each one runs into.

A coffee in São Paulo, R$18, on the Pro plan. This is the case the card is good at. You pay R$18, you get 1% back as Bitcoin Satsback, so roughly R$0.18 of Bitcoin on a R$49.90 monthly plan. No FX, no conversion fee in your home currency, no ATM involved. The only cost is the plan fee, and part of that is waived by usage.

A €40 dinner in Lisbon, on the Plus plan. Here you hit the gap. Foreign use on the credit card is limited to travel and personal expenses, which this would be. But the FX rate is not stated — you are told only that it may be higher or lower than the BCB average rate, and that the IOF rate is not named in the card terms. Taxes on remittance abroad are your responsibility. And on Plus you still pay R$14.90 a month and, if you want the plastic, the physical-card fee. This is the payment where I cannot tell you what you will pay, and neither, from these pages, can you.

A R$500 withdrawal at an airport machine, on the Max plan. Two unknowns stacked. ATM limits — daily, weekly or monthly — may be imposed and the amounts are not listed, so the withdrawal may simply not be available at the amount you need. And the ATM fee follows the Tabela de Tarifas and your plan, with no figure given. On top of that, a card network’s declined authorisations can leave a hold on funds that stays for several days, typically up to 7, so a failed or pending machine transaction can tie up money temporarily.

I want to add one structural point that is easy to miss: on-chain network fees for a deposit are charged by the blockchain, not by Bipa. So when you top up, the network takes its cut too, and that is a separate line from everything in the table above.

How to Top up the card

This is Bipa’s strongest section, and the one where it earned an 8.

Pix is native, which matters more than it sounds — in Brazil, Pix is how people move money, and having it built in rather than bolted on removes the usual friction of funding a foreign-platform balance.

Bitcoin is accepted on-chain and over Lightning. Both rails are listed, which means you can pay a small fee on the Lightning route or the standard on-chain route, and you choose.

USDT arrives via Ethereum (ERC-20) or Polygon only. Solana is not accepted for USDT. USDC, SOL, XRP and ETH networks are also listed. This is where the one serious trap in the whole product lives: send USDT from Solana and the transfer is a blockchain transaction that cannot be reversed by anyone, including support. If you hold USDT on Solana, you must convert or move it to Ethereum or Polygon first. That is not a workaround for the rules — it is simply the payment rail the card accepts, and staying on it is the ordinary, correct way to do this.

You also have Cofrinho, a savings pot, with a minimum of R$50. Deposit fees are not stated.

The two sides of the card are funded differently, and it is worth knowing which one you are touching. The prepaid card’s limit “may be enabled in crypto”, with settlement set out in clause 5.9 of the Card Terms. The credit card is backed by reais held as collateral or guarantee. Plan fees are debited from the prepaid limit or from your reais balance. Specific coins and networks for enabling the prepaid limit in crypto are not stated on the page I read — so if that is your route, ask before you rely on it.

There is a withdrawal side too, and a limit worth knowing. Bipa publishes a guide titled “Como sacar ou transferir Dolar (USDT)” and there is a US$100,000 limit on international crypto transfers — though I only read the titles of those pages, not their contents. On cancellation, Bipa may deduct amounts owed from your available balance, and cancelling the card does not cancel the plan. Those are two small sentences that decide whether leaving is clean or messy, so read them before you need them.

Paying with it every day

Day to day, Bipa behaves like a normal Mastercard with crypto attached. Both a prepaid and a credit card, both virtual and physical. You would not stand out at the till.

The rewards are the reason to use it rather than an ordinary card. Satsback is paid in Bitcoin on card purchases — and note the exclusion: purchases of crypto made with the card do not earn Satsback. The rate depends on your plan: 0% on Free, 0.5% on Plus, 1% on Pro, 1.5% on Max. Timing differs by card: on the credit card, rewards post after you pay the invoice; on the prepaid, after settlement. So the credit card rewards you for paying your bill on time, in a way that is easy to overlook.

There is a second, quieter reward aimed at people who leave reais on deposit as guarantee. A separate reward in BTC on the reais held as guarantee: 75% of CDI on Free; 100% of CDI up to R$3,000 and 90% above that on Plus; 110% up to R$5,000 and 100% above that on Pro; 115% up to R$5,000 and 100% above that on Max. It requires an active card. If you are reading this as “what happens to the cash I put up as collateral”, that is your answer — and the reason the credit card is more than a spending card for anyone with reais to park.

On the app and the wallets. Bipa’s own figures, read on 2026-10-20, are App Store 4.8 and Google Play 4.7 across 20,000+ ratings, with 300,000+ downloads — company claims, not something I verified independently. The card “may be enabled in digital wallets according to eligibility”; Apple Pay and Google Pay are not named specifically, so do not assume either. Some transactions that the processor classifies as MoneySend are blocked, and there is no published list of blocked merchant categories — that last point is the kind of thing that turns into a failed payment at a ticket desk with no explanation.

Two more practical notes. Merchants may set their own minimum and maximum amounts per transaction, and a declined authorisation can leave a hold on your money for several days, typically up to 7.

What can go wrong

Start with the rules that bind you, because they are published and they are strict. Card issuance, use, guarantees and disputes are governed exclusively by the Card Terms, which I did not read. That single sentence is the most important thing on this page for anyone making a serious decision: the enforceable rules on your money, your credit limit and your disputes are not in the app and not on the marketing pages.

Disputes have hard timings. Unrecognised transactions must be reported within 5 days of the transaction. Stark Bank does a preliminary analysis, and the final analysis happens “within the period defined by Stark Bank” — with no number given. There is a 7-day right of withdrawal for online purchases. Bipa does not take responsibility for the dispute outcome, so if a claim fails you are left with the merchant. And a chargeback reverses your Satsback, which is a real sting: the reward you were counting on is clawed back while you argue.

Fraud handling has a sequence that you should memorise now rather than under pressure. Three wrong PIN entries block the card — you unlock it in the app. Report loss or theft to support to get it blocked. Bipa and Stark Bank never ask for your passwords. And Bipa only answers for misuse by a third party after the block has been requested. That last clause is the one to sit with: the clock starts when you report, not when it happened. Custody and insurance arrangements are not stated.

Then the broader risk picture. This card puts your money with a custodian, and with a payment institution — so you carry counterparty risk on top of the risks of the crypto itself. Transfers are typically irreversible; blockchain transfers can be lost if sent on a network the provider does not support. Stablecoins can and do depeg: TerraUSD collapsed in May 2022, and USDC briefly lost its peg in March 2023 during the US banking crisis. And the category has a documented history of programmes being switched off — Visa terminated its global agreements with FTX on 13 November 2022, and the FTX US debit card was wound down by its issuer; WaveCrest, a Visa issuer that supplied crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018, closing all WaveCrest-issued Visa programmes. That is not a prediction about Bipa. It is the background you are buying into when a card depends on a crypto company staying solvent and its issuer staying supportive.

What I could not find is worth stating too. I looked for complaints and found none: no Reclame Aqui page and no Trustpilot page for Bipa. Bipa claims a 4.8 rating from 26,000+ reviews — that is marketing and unverified. On news, the only items I found are undated: R$17 million of funding from Ego Death Capital on the company’s own page, and the Stark Bank issuer relationship with BIPA Instituicao de Pagamento Ltda. No dated events turned up, which for a company founded in 2020 means less history than you might want under a card in your pocket.

Support, if you need it: in-app chat under profile then “Ajuda e suporte”, a Help Center chat or form with a reply promised within up to 24 business hours, social media, and email at [email protected]. Hours are Monday to Friday 09h–21h and Saturday to Sunday 09h–15h, time zone not stated. Portuguese only — which, for anyone outside Brazil, is not a small detail.

What to take instead

Three alternatives came up with published numbers of their own, and I compare them on the same axes I used for Bipa: can you tell what it costs, and what do you get for it.

Sponge — 4.9 out of 10. A virtual card created in the app, described as a credit card issued by Rain, a Visa Principal Member, accepted wherever Visa is accepted. USDC collateral moves from the Sponge wallet with a card fund command, with base as the example chain and the SDK mentioning base or solana as optional. Against that: no country list on the card pages (platform terms only set a minimum age of 13), no stated card currency, no stated cost, no stated fees, no stated rewards. It scores lower mainly because even less is published than for Bipa, and because a purely virtual card with no stated eligibility is a thinner proposition for someone who needs a physical card.

Nexo — 6.3 out of 10. The most transparent of the three on fees, which is why it is worth reading even if you do not apply. Residents and citizens of “selected European countries, including the EEA and the United Kingdom” — no country list on the page, and excluded jurisdictions not named. Virtual card activates in the app; a physical card exists but is free only if you hold more than $5,000 in digital assets and at least the Gold tier. Issued by DiPocket UAB. No monthly, annual or inactivity fee; the virtual card needs at least $50 in the account to activate. FX fee on weekdays 0.2% (EEA/UK/CH) and 2% (rest of world), 0.7% and 2.5% at weekends. Cashback only on Credit Mode purchases with more than $5,000 in digital assets, paid in NEXO tokens or Bitcoin: Platinum 2%/0.5%, Gold 1%/0.3%, Silver 0.7%/0.2%, Base 0.5%/0.1% for NEXO/BTC, depending on the share of NEXO tokens in your portfolio. One thing to weigh carefully: a news report (not an official statement) of a 2025-era Bulgarian police raid on Nexo’s Sofia office over alleged Russia-sanctions and AML violations, with no official Nexo statement on Russians found.

Xplace — 7.7 out of 10. The strongest score of the group, and the only one with a Visa acceptance claim of 160+ countries. Virtual card instant; physical card live on Silver with Gold and Platinum to come, delivery 7–14 business days. Cash mode spends your stablecoin balance; Credit mode borrows against your holdings with no origination fee. Annual fees: Basic free, Silver $99, Gold $249, Platinum $999. “0% FX on Platinum”, with FX for other tiers and the conversion fee not stated, and stablecoin spending advertised as having no hidden spread. Deposits in BTC (cbBTC), ETH (wETH), SOL, JitoSOL, USDC, USDT and xStocks over Solana. Credit-mode cashback by tier: Basic 0.5%, Silver 1%, Gold 1.5%, Platinum 2%, paid in USDC to the wallet at settlement; Cash-mode cashback not stated. The catch: the country list is not stated, services “are not available in all jurisdictions”, and the free-0%-FX headline exists only on the most expensive tier.

• If you want the clearest published fee structure and are in the EEA or UK, Nexo is the one to read first.
• If you want the widest acceptance claim and can afford a $249–$999 annual fee for the FX terms, Xplace.
• If you specifically want Bitcoin cashback on everyday spending in reais and you are Brazilian, Bipa — with the caveats above.

Who I would recommend it to

I would recommend Bipa to a Brazilian resident who already spends most of what they earn inside Brazil, who is comfortable with a selfie-and-document sign-up and with periodic re-verification, who wants Bitcoin back on ordinary purchases rather than as a speculative position, and who will actually read the Card Terms rather than assume the app tells them everything.

I would not recommend it to someone whose money is in another currency, to someone who plans to lean on the ATM, or to anyone for whom the missing FX, conversion and ATM numbers are the deciding factor — because you should not sign up for a financial product on the assumption that the unstated parts are generous. If you need a card you can predict the cost of abroad, one of the alternatives above will at least tell you the rate in advance.

And if you are anywhere but Brazil: the pages I read do not say the card is open to you, so treat that as unanswered rather than as a yes.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bipa card?

Bipa is a Brazilian crypto platform that issues a Mastercard, available both prepaid and as credit, in virtual and physical form. It converts or settles crypto into a balance you spend like an ordinary card, and pays part of what you spend back in Bitcoin as Satsback. The issuer named by Bipa is Stark Bank S.A. Instituicao de Pagamento.

How does the Bipa card work?

You sign up with a selfie and an identity document, choose a plan, and either load the prepaid side (its limit may be enabled in crypto, settled under clause 5.9 of the Card Terms) or use the credit side, which is backed by reais held as collateral or guarantee. At each purchase the balance is converted and the card pays the merchant normally.

Is Bipa a bank?

No — not in the ordinary sense. Bipa Intermediação de Ativos Digitais LTDA, founded in 2020, describes itself as a payment institution and virtual asset service provider regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil, and the card is issued by Stark Bank. The crypto platform manages the programme; a separate licensed institution issues the card.

Who owns Bipa?

Ownership is not stated on the pages I read. What is published is the company behind the app, Bipa Intermediação de Ativos Digitais LTDA (CNPJ 37.008.710/0001-78), plus BIPA Instituicao de Pagamento Ltda (CNPJ 40.910.463/0001-05) with which plans are offered, and R$17 million of funding from Ego Death Capital on the company’s own undated announcement.

Is the Bipa card available in my country?

The card’s public pages do not state the eligibility rules or a country list. Everything visible is Brazilian: a Brazilian company, plans priced in reais, Brazilian risk criteria for credit, Pix support and Portuguese-only support. If you are not a Brazilian resident, the pages give you no basis for an assumption either way.

How do I top up the Bipa card?

With Pix natively, Bitcoin on-chain or over Lightning, or USDT via Ethereum (ERC-20) or Polygon. USDC, SOL, XRP and ETH networks are also listed, and Cofrinho accepts a minimum of R$50. Deposit fees are not stated, and blockchain network fees apply separately on-chain.

Can I send USDT from Solana to Bipa?

No. USDT is accepted via Ethereum (ERC-20) or Polygon only, and Solana is not accepted for USDT. Since blockchain transfers are irreversible, sending from an unsupported network can lose the funds — convert or bridge to a supported network first, and check the destination address before you send.

Does Bipa card require KYC?

Yes, as a regulated payment service it does, and the public pages describe a sign-up selfie plus document. Bipa may request updated registration data periodically, and Bipa and Stark Bank may verify your data at any time; false information can lead to suspension and cancellation of the card. The precise verification levels, accepted documents and processing times are not stated.

Is the Bipa card safe?

It is a real Mastercard issued by a named institution, with sensible basics: three wrong PIN entries block the card, you report loss to support, and Bipa and Stark Bank say they never ask for passwords. But Bipa only answers for third-party misuse after the block has been requested, and custody and insurance are not stated. Your money sits with a custodian, so counterparty risk is part of the deal.

Is the Bipa card worth it?

Worth it if you spend mostly in Brazil and want Bitcoin back: 0.5% on Plus, 1% on Pro, 1.5% on Max, plus a CDI-linked reward on the reais you leave as guarantee. Think twice if you need foreign exchange, because the FX rate, the IOF rate, conversion fees and ATM charges are not published — you would be buying the card without knowing two of its biggest costs.

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