What the Bipa card actually offers, and where its public pages stop

Updated October 2026

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Available in US

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Bipa scores 5.9 out of 10 in my assessment. It is a Brazilian company with Brazilian plans priced in reais, a Mastercard prepaid card and a credit card, Bitcoin cashback on spend, and an unusually wide set of top-up rails for someone who already holds crypto. What it does not do is tell a great deal on its public pages: eligibility rules, the conversion fee, the FX rate, ATM fees and spending limits are all absent from what I could read. That silence is the main thing to weigh, because a crypto card is mostly plumbing — what it charges you between the wallet and the till matters more than the cashback headline. Here is what I found, what I could not find, and how the card compares with the alternatives I looked at.

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

Verdict: 5.9 out of 10

The card is aimed at Brazilian residents who want Bitcoin cashback on everyday spending in reais. If that is you — you live in Brazil, you spend in reais, you are comfortable moving crypto on-chain, and you want a small Bitcoin return on coffee and groceries — the proposition is coherent and the top-up options are genuinely broad. If you are anywhere else, or you want a card with a published conversion rate and a published spending limit, this is the wrong page to be reading: the conditions are Brazilian, the support is Portuguese-only, and the public pages do not say who is eligible.

The overall picture: a competent product with a narrow, local audience and an unusually quiet public disclosure page. The low mark on eligibility is not a complaint about the company — it is the fact that I could not verify who is accepted, and for someone deciding whether to hand over a selfie and a document, unverifiable is the same as unknown.

Will they give you the card?

They will not say. Eligibility is not stated on the public pages I read, and the only geographic signal is that this is a Brazil-focused product: the company is Brazilian, the plans are priced in reais, and the credit card is based on Brazilian risk criteria.

That is worth sitting with. You can infer a lot from context — a BRL-denominated plan, a Brazilian corporate registry, a Brazilian support desk — but inference is not a condition. There is no list of eligible nationalities, no list of eligible countries of residence, no stated age or residency threshold beyond the note that the product is for an adult individual. There is also no list of countries where the card is refused.

If you are reading this outside Brazil, the practical answer is: I cannot tell you from what the company publishes. Ask support directly before you upload any document. That is not a trick or a workaround — it is the one question the public pages leave unanswered, and getting an answer before you sign up costs you nothing.

A related point belongs here because it shapes the whole application: card issuance, use, guarantee and disputes are governed, in the company’s words, exclusively by the Card Terms, and those terms were not part of what I read. So the operative rule set for your money — limits, blocks, chargebacks, what happens on cancellation — lives in a document this review cannot summarise.

How to get it

The card itself is a Mastercard, offered in four plans across three metal tiers: Gold (Free, Plus), Platinum (Pro) and Black (Max). There are two products, not one. The prepaid card draws on a balance you load. The credit card, Bipa Crédito, is backed by reais you keep as collateral, and on it you can buy Bitcoin on credit in up to three instalments. A virtual card exists alongside the physical one, and the prepaid limit can be enabled in crypto. The currency is BRL.

On the physical card: it is free on Pro and Max and carries a fee on Free and Plus, though the amount is not stated. Delivery time is given only as whatever the support channels say — no figure is published. A Brazilian delivery address is implied by everything else on the page.

Verification at sign-up is a selfie plus a document. Beyond that first check, Bipa may ask for updated registration data periodically. The levels of verification, the accepted documents and the processing time are not stated on the page I read. What is stated is that Stark Bank and Bipa may verify your data at any time, that false information can lead to suspension and cancellation of the card, that the product is for an adult individual, and that approval of a credit limit depends on a prior analysis.

So the honest picture of signing up: selfie, document, adult, analysis. Beyond that you are relying on terms you have not been shown here.

What it really costs: fees you can see and fees you cannot

The visible costs are the plan fees and, on the lower plans, the physical card. The invisible costs are the ones that decide what your card payment actually ends up costing: the conversion fee and the FX rate. Neither is disclosed in numbers.

Three everyday payments, walked through, so you can see which of the unknown fees you would actually meet:

1. A coffee in São Paulo, prepaid. This is the clean case. You are spending reais from a loaded balance in your own country, so no conversion and no FX. The only thing that could bite is a declined authorisation leaving a hold on funds, which can sit for several days.

1. A subscription bought online from a merchant outside Brazil. Here two unknowns land at once. Your balance has to be converted from whatever you hold into BRL, at a conversion fee that is not published, and the merchant’s country may put an FX step on top, at a rate that is not published and that the company itself says may differ from the BCB average. If you use the credit card rather than the prepaid one, foreign use is limited to travel and personal expenses, in credit mode only. Taxes on remittance abroad are your responsibility; the IOF rate is not named.

1. A withdrawal at a bank ATM abroad. This is the worst of the three for predictability. ATM fees follow the fee table and your plan, the amounts are not listed, and daily, weekly or monthly ATM limits may be imposed — so you may be able to take less than you planned, or pay a fee you did not know about, or find the withdrawal blocked by a limit.

The pattern: the more Brazilian your spending, the more you can predict the cost. The more your spending leaves Brazil, the more you are pricing something the company has not published. For a card whose whole appeal is being a crypto balance spent like ordinary money, that is the gap I would want closed before I relied on it.

How to top it up

This is the strongest part of the product, and it is the reason the top-up criterion earns 8 out of 10. Pix is native. Bitcoin can arrive on-chain or over Lightning. USDT can be sent through Ethereum (ERC-20) or Polygon only — Solana is not accepted, which is a real trap if your USDT habitually lives on Solana. USDC, SOL, XRP and ETH networks are also listed. There is a Cofrinho minimum of R$50. Deposit fees are not stated.

Two further mechanics matter. The prepaid card limit may be enabled in crypto, settled under clause 5.9 of the Card Terms. Plan fees are debited from the prepaid limit or from your reais balance. Separately, on the credit side, increasing the credit limit requires an extra deposit and the enabling of a guarantee — you are not simply being offered more credit; you are putting more of your own money behind it.

Withdrawal is thinner on detail: there is a guide titled “Como sacar ou transferir Dolar (USDT)” and a US$100,000 limit on international crypto transfers, both read as titles only. There is no plan or card cancellation fee, but on cancellation Bipa may deduct amounts owed from the available balance, and cancelling the card does not cancel the plan — a small thing that catches people out.

The general category warning applies here more than anywhere. Blockchain transfers are irreversible. A deposit sent on a network the provider does not support, or to an address belonging to a different network, can be lost or need manual support recovery with no guarantee. The Solana/USDT exclusion above is exactly the kind of detail that makes a wrong-network deposit unrecoverable. And a stablecoin is not, whatever its name suggests, guaranteed stable: TeraUSD collapsed in May 2022 and USDC briefly lost its peg during the US banking crisis in March 2023.

Paying with it every day

The everyday mechanics are good. Mastercard, physical and virtual, prepaid and credit, in BRL, on a Brazilian risk footing. The digital wallet story is thinner: the card “may be enabled in digital wallets according to eligibility”, and Apple Pay and Google Pay are not named. I would not plan around tap-to-pay until you have seen it work on your own card. Some transactions that the payment processor classifies as MoneySend are blocked; no blocked merchant category list is published.

The rewards are the part that will show up in your statements. Satsback is paid in Bitcoin on card purchases, with crypto bought using the card excluded: Free 0%, Plus 0.5%, Pro 1%, Max 1.5%. On the credit card the reward posts after you pay the invoice; on the prepaid it posts after settlement. On top of that sits a separate collateral reward in BTC on the reais you keep as guarantee, which requires an active card:

Read that second column carefully. It is a rate on your own collateral, not free money, and the cap is where the difference between Plus, Pro and Max lives.

The app’s own claims are worth knowing as claims: App Store 4.8, Google Play 4.7 across more than 20,000 ratings, and 300,000+ downloads. Those are marketing figures the company publishes about itself.

Disputes have a clock you must know. Unrecognised transactions must be reported within 5 days of the transaction. Stark Bank does a preliminary analysis, then a final one “within the period defined by Stark Bank” — no number of days is given. There is a 7-day withdrawal right for online purchases. Bipa does not take responsibility for the outcome of the dispute, and a chargeback reverses your Satsback.

What can go wrong

Holding your money with a third party. The most concrete risk here is custody, and it is not specific to Bipa. Control of crypto belongs to whoever holds the private key or seed phrase; with a custodial wallet the provider holds the credentials and you must trust them completely. Transfers are typically irreversible and a stolen key has no built-in recovery — the network cannot freeze or return the funds. The category has a record of it: Mt. Gox (about US$350 million reported stolen, 2011–2014), Coincheck (about US$400 million, 2018) and Ronin Network (US$625 million, 2022).

Programme closure. Card programmes die. WaveCrest, a Visa issuer that supplied crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018, closing all WaveCrest-issued programmes; Visa terminated its global agreements with FTX on 13 November 2022 and the FTX US debit card was wound down. The typical shutdown sequence is a notice period, then spending and loading stop, then you are asked to withdraw. A 2026 closure reported by a secondary source ended new loads on 8 July 2026 and spending on 8 August 2026 — one unconfirmed source, and I mention it only as the shape of the risk. On Bipa specifically, cancelling the card does not cancel the plan.

Merchants and foreign BINs. A card number starts with a 6- or 8-digit issuer identification number, and the rest is an account identifier and a check digit. Merchants can look that up, see which institution and country issued the card, and apply extra scrutiny when the issuer country differs from the billing address. Some merchants decline prepaid or foreign BINs for exactly that reason, and Address Verification Service is generally unavailable for foreign-issued cards, which causes declines.

Fraud and the block that has to come first. The issuer is Stark Bank, named as responsible for issuing the Bipa cards. Three wrong PIN attempts block the card, and you unlock it in the app. If you report loss or theft to support, the card is blocked — and Bipa answers for third-party misuse only after the block has been requested. That ordering matters: money spent before you report it is not covered by the company. The company states that Bipa and Stark Bank never ask for passwords. Custody insurance is not stated.

Sanctions and screening. Nationality is recorded and screened separately from residence, because sanctions screening and issuer risk policy are often applied to citizenship and country of birth as well as to your address. Tether says it disables tokens in wallets on the OFAC sanctions list and has frozen funds tied to illicit activity, so stablecoins are not censorship-proof.

Complaints. I found none — and I want to be precise about what that means. The dedicated search for Bipa complaints on Reclame Aqui and Trustpilot returned no pages about Bipa. The company claims a 4.8 rating from 26,000+ reviews; that is unverified marketing. An empty search result is not a track record.

Support. In-app chat under profile > “Ajuda e suporte”, a Help Center chat and form with a reply promised up to 24 business hours, social media, and [email protected]. Hours are Mon–Fri 09h–21h and Sat–Sun 09h–15h, time zone not stated. Portuguese only.

The company. Bipa Intermediação de Ativos Digitais LTDA, CNPJ 37.008.710/0001-78, founded in 2020 in Brazil, described as both a payment institution and a VASP, regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil — the regulation claim is the company’s own. The issuer is Stark Bank S.A. Instituicao de Pagamento, and plans are offered with BIPA Instituicao de Pagamento Ltda (CNPJ 40.910.463/0001-05). There is a company page reporting R$17 million of funding from Ego Death Capital — undated. No dated events surfaced at all, which for a live product is thin.

What to take instead

I looked at three cards with published scoring of their own: Nexo at 6.3, Pay3 at 6.3, Exa at 6.2. All three sit above Bipa’s 5.9, but each for different reasons, and none is a like-for-like substitute for a Brazilian resident.

Nexo is the one with real disclosure. Its FX fee is published by weekday and weekend and by region, its tiers are published, and its cashback condition is stated plainly: more than $5,000 in digital assets and Credit Mode. The catch for you is geographic — the wording is residents *and* citizens of selected European countries including the EEA and the UK, with no country list published and excluded jurisdictions unnamed. Unofficially, Cointelegraph reported a 2025-era Bulgarian police raid on Nexo’s Sofia office over alleged Russia-sanctions and AML violations, with no official Nexo statement about Russians found. Its physical card also requires a balance above $5,000 and at least Gold tier.

Pay3 publishes its percentages, which is more than Bipa does: currency conversion from 1.15%, foreign exchange up to 3% for non-USD, cross-border up to 3%, foreign transaction up to 3%. It is open outside “Restricted Locations” — countries under trade sanctions, export controls or crypto/fintech prohibitions — with no published list that may change without notice, and its card terms require you to attest you are not a US citizen and not OFAC-blocked. It is collateral-based, so the limit comes from your collateral.

Exa covers the widest map — 45 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and the UAE, plus 31 US states, with Nigeria conditional — and excludes 18 countries including Belarus, China, India, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam; Russian residents cannot be issued a card, and spending is blocked in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela. But it publishes almost no numbers: card currency USD implied, fees not stated, rewards not stated. The rewards language, “Earn while you spend”, refers to yield on assets, and the Visa Signature benefits include 20% off Airalo eSIMs and a US activation reward of $20 in XRP for spending $100.

My honest read on the comparison: if you are Brazilian and want Bitcoin cashback on real spending, Bipa is the relevant product and the others mostly are not. If you are elsewhere, Nexo and Pay3 publish more than Bipa does and are worth reading before you conclude anything.

Who I would recommend it to

I would recommend this card to a Brazilian resident who already holds crypto or uses Pix daily, who is comfortable reading the network name on a transfer before pressing send, who wants a small Bitcoin yield on ordinary spending rather than a travel card, and who is content to accept that the eligibility rules, conversion fee and FX rate are not published and can only be asked about. Someone who plans their week around a Bitcoin reward rate is exactly the intended user.

I would not recommend it to you if any of the following is true. You live outside Brazil and cannot confirm you are eligible from anything the company publishes. You spend abroad regularly — foreign use is limited to travel and personal expenses and only in credit mode, the FX rate may sit above the BCB average, and IOF is unnamed. You need a number you can budget from: the conversion fee, the ATM fees and the spending limits are all not stated. You need support in a language other than Portuguese. You hold USDT on Solana and expect to top up with it, because that network is refused.

And a general caution that belongs on any page like this one. I am not giving tax or legal advice, and this is not a recommendation to transact. In the United States the IRS treats digital assets as property, so exchanging them for goods, services or dollars generally produces a taxable gain or loss measured in local fiat currency at fair market value on the transaction date — which for a crypto-funded card payment can mean each purchase is a separate disposal. Rules elsewhere differ, and so do mine and yours.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Bipa card?

The Bipa card is a Brazilian crypto payment product offered by Bipa Intermediação de Ativos Digitais LTDA, founded in Brazil in 2020. It gives you a Mastercard in both prepaid and credit form, physical and virtual, denominated in Brazilian reais. You load it from Pix or from crypto, spend it like an ordinary card, and earn Bitcoin cashback on purchases. The prepaid card draws on a stored balance; the credit card is backed by reais you keep as collateral.

Is Bipa a bank?

No, not as far as the published information goes. Bipa describes itself as a payment institution and a VASP regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil — that regulation claim is the company’s own. The card itself is issued by Stark Bank S.A. Instituicao de Pagamento, which is named as responsible for issuing the Bipa cards. So the card programme is run by a named institution, while Bipa sits on top as the app and the brand.

Who can get the Bipa card?

The public pages do not say. Eligibility is not stated, and no list of eligible countries or nationalities is published. What is clear from context is that the product is oriented to Brazil: the company is Brazilian, the plans are priced in reais, and the credit card uses Brazilian risk criteria. If you are outside Brazil, ask support directly before uploading any document.

What does the Bipa card cost per month?

Plans are Free at R$0, Plus at R$14.90, Pro at R$49.90 and Max at R$99.90 per month, and some are waived by usage. The physical card is free on Pro and Max and chargeable on Free and Plus, with the amount not stated. There is no plan or card cancellation fee. Crypto trading fees are listed separately, but no amounts are given.

How do I top up the Bipa card?

Through Pix natively, or in crypto: Bitcoin on-chain or over Lightning, and USDT through Ethereum (ERC-20) or Polygon only. USDC, SOL, XRP and ETH networks are also listed. Note that USDT on Solana is not accepted. The Cofrinho minimum is R$50 and deposit fees are not stated. On the credit side, raising the limit needs an extra deposit and the enabling of a guarantee.

Can I add the Bipa card to Apple Wallet?

The published wording is that the card may be enabled in digital wallets according to eligibility, and Apple Pay and Google Pay are not named. There is a related restriction worth knowing: some transactions the payment processor classifies as MoneySend are blocked, and no list of blocked merchant categories is published. Test it on your own card before you rely on tap-to-pay for anything time-sensitive.

Is the Bipa card safe?

It has the usual safeguards: three wrong PIN attempts block the card and you unlock it in the app, you can report loss or theft to support, and the company states that Bipa and Stark Bank never ask for passwords. But Bipa answers for third-party misuse only after the block has been requested, custody insurance is not stated, and crypto transfers are typically irreversible with no built-in recovery if a key is lost.

What happens if I see a payment I do not recognise?

You have five days from the transaction to report it. Stark Bank runs a preliminary analysis and then a final one, though the final period is not stated in days. There is also a 7-day withdrawal right on online purchases. Two things to know in advance: Bipa does not take responsibility for the outcome of a dispute, and a chargeback reverses your Satsback reward.

Is the Bipa card available outside Brazil?

I cannot confirm that from what the company publishes. Eligibility is not stated, the product is clearly Brazilian in structure, and support is Portuguese only. What is stated about geography is narrower: foreign use of the card is limited to travel and personal expenses, in credit mode only, and the FX rate may be higher or lower than the BCB average.

Is the Bipa card worth it?

For a Brazilian resident who spends mainly in reais and wants Bitcoin cashback, the top-up options are broad enough to make it a reasonable everyday card, and the collateral reward on BTC held as guarantee is a real feature. Against that, the conversion fee, FX rate, ATM fees and spending limits are all not stated, so you cannot fully predict your cost. Decide on that disclosure gap, not on the headline reward rate.

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