A Kazakhstan-only Mastercard that turns USDT into tenge at the till

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

The #CryptoPay card is one of the more unusual crypto cards on the market today, because almost every practical question about it ends in the same answer: it works only in Kazakhstan, only at a physical till and only in tenge. It is issued by Bank CenterCredit, a long-established Kazakh bank, in partnership with ATAIX Eurasia, a crypto exchange licensed in Astana. If you live in Kazakhstan, hold USDT and want to walk into a shop and pay from your stablecoin balance without first selling it on an exchange, it is one of the few products that lets you do that today. If you do not fit that description, there is very little here for you.

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

Verdict

I went through the card’s terms, the bank’s tariff sheet and ATAIX Eurasia’s own pages, and I keep landing on the same conclusion: this is a niche product, well-built for one specific reader, with sharp edges everywhere else. The score I am willing to give it, out of ten, is 5.0.

The card suits Kazakhstan residents who already hold USDT and want to spend it offline in tenge, without selling it on a regular exchange. It does not suit anyone outside Kazakhstan, anyone who needs to pay online, anyone who needs cash, or anyone who wants a card that handles several currencies.

Who can get the #CryptoPay card

The card is narrow on eligibility. According to Bank CenterCredit’s tariff table, the issue price is “10,000 ₸ for residents of Kazakhstan.” You open it inside the bcc.kz app, but only after you have registered on ATAIX Eurasia and passed identity verification to either “Investor” or “Premium” status. The page does not state a citizenship rule separately, only the residency one.

The fact that the card requires an exchange account, not just a bank account, is the single most important thing to understand about it. The bank and the exchange both check who you are, and your monthly spending limit depends on which tier you have on the exchange side.

There is one further point worth raising. In December 2023, ATAIX Eurasia advised Russian citizens to close their accounts, citing its policy of following sanctions; a later report indicated that new Russian users could no longer register. I am reporting this based on third-party news (such as reports in December 2023), as ATAIX or Bank CenterCredit have not restated this on their current public pages. Russian citizens should verify their eligibility with the exchange directly before applying.

Documents, proof of address and age: the card’s public pages do not say what the bank asks for at the bank side, beyond passing identification on the exchange first.

How to apply for the #CryptoPay card

The application is a four-step process. I am laying it out here because the order matters and the second step only works after the first one is done.

1. Register on ATAIX Eurasia and complete identity verification (KYC) to reach “Investor” or “Premium” status. The exchange’s public pages do not state what each status requires in terms of documents, processing time or reasons for rejection.
2. Install the bcc.kz app, then choose “New product or account” → #CryptoPay → “Open card”.
3. Confirm the card by e-mail sent to the address you used at ATAIX. ATAIX says the message arrives within two hours.
4. Add the card to Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay.

The card you receive is a digital Mastercard World Black Edition debit card, in tenge, valid for eight years. There is a plastic version, but only if you pre-order it, and the bank states that it can be collected or reissued by power of attorney (notarised, valid up to three years). Delivery time, cost and replacement cost: not stated on the public pages.

A practical consequence of the ATAIX status requirement: the monthly spending limit depends on it. The base limit on the card is 500,000 ₸ per month. Once you confirm the “Investor” qualification, the monthly limit can be raised to 45,000,000 ₸. “Premium” is also accepted, but the pages do not state a different limit for it.

What the #CryptoPay card really costs

The cost section is short on numbers and long on absences, and that is the heart of the problem. Here is what the bank and the exchange actually publish.

The “0% conversion” line deserves a closer look. ATAIX says you convert USDT to tenge at the exchange rate when you pay, and that there is no separate conversion fee on top. What the pages do not say is what rate you get, whether it is the mid-market rate or a wider bid/ask spread, and whether there is any FX fee when the merchant settles in a currency other than tenge. The card account is in KZT, and “Payment is charged in tenge (KZT)” — the card is charged in tenge — so a payment in another currency would presumably go through Mastercard’s conversion, on which the bank does not publish a fee.

A few everyday illustrations of how the fees work in practice:

• A 50,000 ₸ coffee in Almaty, paid by phone with Apple Pay: the 0% conversion applies (USDT → KZT), there is no top-up fee, and you only pay the 5,000 ₸ monthly service fee that is already due that month.
• A 100,000 ₸ supermarket shop on Google Pay: same — 0% conversion, no transaction fee. The cap on your monthly spending at base level (500,000 ₸) is the only thing that could stop you.
• An online order: not applicable. Online payments are not supported on this card (more on that in the daily-use section), so this scenario does not arise.

The ATM line is the most consequential: “No, cash withdrawal at ATMs is unavailable.” If you ever need to convert your USDT into physical tenge, the only way to do it through this product is to spend it at a till.

How to top up the #CryptoPay card

Only one cryptocurrency is accepted for spending: USDT. To fund the card, you go through the ATAIX wallet balance, in one of three ways:

• send crypto into the wallet (this is the standard route);
• send fiat by transfer into the exchange, then convert to USDT inside the ATAIX app;
• use the “Cryptocurrency” section of the bcc.kz app.

For the first route, ATAIX lists three networks for USDT deposits: BSC, ETH and TRON. The deposit fee on the exchange side is 0.00, and the minimum deposit is 0.01 USDT. The network fees you pay on the sender’s side (gas on Ethereum, bandwidth/energy on Tron, gas on BSC) are charged by the blockchain itself, not by the card provider, and the card’s public pages do not quote a typical figure.

A few points worth keeping in mind before you send anything:

• The minimum top-up is 0.01 USDT, which is small enough that you can test the route cheaply the first time.
• USDT on BSC and Tron is generally cheaper to send than USDT on Ethereum, but each network has its own confirmation time and its own failure modes.
• If you send USDT on a network the exchange does not support, or to an address of the wrong network, the transfer is, in practice, very hard to recover — blockchain transfers are irreversible.
• Top-up of the crypto wallet and the subsequent payment are both described by the bank as “no fee,” but you still bear the network fee on the deposit and the exchange-rate effect of USDT/KZT at payment.

When you spend, USDT is converted to KZT at the exchange rate at the moment of payment. The exchange rate itself is what determines how much tenge you get for your USDT, and that is the part to watch over time, not the headline 0% conversion fee.

Paying with the #CryptoPay card every day

This is the section where the card reveals what it really is, and what it is not.

• The card is digital, and it works in Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. The bank confirms that the card supports tokenisation in those wallets.
• It works at POS terminals. You tap or insert, the merchant’s terminal charges in tenge, and the conversion runs.
• It does not work online. “Online payment is NOT available — only offline purchases at POS terminals.” So this card is not for Amazon, not for a streaming subscription, not for a flight booked on a website. Mastercard’s own Identity Check (3-D Secure) flow has nothing to verify, because the card never sees an online checkout.
• It does not work at ATMs. Cash withdrawal is unavailable.
• It does not work for transfers, either inside Bank CenterCredit or to other banks.
• It is a single-currency card: account in KZT, conversion from USDT to KZT at payment. Multi-currency balances are not stated.

On the rewards side, the exchange says the card pays 0.5% basic cashback on every purchase, capped at 20,000 ₸ per month. The cashback currency is not stated, so I cannot tell you whether it is paid in tenge (and you keep it) or in some form of points or token. The bank also lists the standard Mastercard World Black perks: up to 10 Lounge Key visits per year, up to 10 Fast Track passes, and travel insurance up to US$1.5 million. These are tied to the World Black tier, not to the crypto side of the product.

On the apps, the bcc.kz app is the bank-facing side, while the ATAIX Eurasia app is the exchange-facing side. I did not pull the bcc.kz ratings; for ATAIX Eurasia on the Kazakhstan App Store, the published rating I read on 2026-10-21 was 3.5 from 8 ratings, which is not enough data to draw a real conclusion. Treat that as a snapshot, not a verdict.

A practical observation: the card’s refund path is worth understanding before you start using it. Refunds do not go back to a bank balance; they are credited to the crypto wallet, and you can then convert back to USDT in the ATAIX app or website. So if a shop refunds you 10,000 ₸, you receive USDT, not tenge, and the value of that USDT at the moment you convert it back is what you actually keep.

What can go wrong with the #CryptoPay card

I went looking for a Trustpilot page, a Reddit thread, a Telegram complaint channel — and I did not find one for CryptoPay or for ATAIX Eurasia in two separate searches. That does not mean nothing has gone wrong; it means there is no public place where users are reviewing the product in English, and the absence is itself worth flagging. If you want reassurance, you have to rely on the licences and the parties involved rather than on user reports.

The parties involved are these. The card is issued by Bank CenterCredit (BCC), Kazakhstan, under general banking licence No. 1.1.856.145 dated 05.08.2026 from the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market. The exchange side is ATAIX Eurasia Ltd., based in Astana (Mangilik El 55/17), with AFSA licence AFSA-A-LA-2025-0022 dated 15 October 2025, covering digital asset trading facility, custody, dealing in digital assets as principal and as agent. AFSA is the Astana Financial Services Authority, the regulator of the Astana International Financial Centre. The licence is full, granted on 15 October 2025 after a period in the regulatory sandbox. Both licences are public and verifiable.

A few things are worth keeping on your own risk list:

• Your crypto is in a custodial wallet. The card description states that crypto stays in the user’s ATAIX Eurasia wallet, and ATAIX is licensed to provide custody. That is a real counterparty relationship: the exchange holds the funds, and the bank’s card is the spending surface on top. Custodial platforms have a record of failures in this industry.
• The card is single-currency, and FX on payments in non-KZT currencies is not stated. If a merchant settles in a different currency, you do not know the markup.
• The dispute and chargeback procedure is not stated. If a charge goes wrong, you do not have a published timeline or a published set of reason codes to lean on.
• The account closure path is not stated. If you want to close the card and walk away with your balance, the public pages do not say how long it takes or what form the balance takes.
• ATAIX’s 2023 stance toward Russian residents is unofficial in the sense that the exchange’s own current pages do not repeat it, but it has been reported. If your situation intersects with that, check directly.

The 24-hour bank line is 505, there is a chat with the bank in Telegram, the bank’s e-mail is [email protected], and there are branches. On the exchange side, there is a support page, the Telegram channel t.me/ataixeurasia, and the phone +7 (727) 356 11 70. The bank’s site is available in Russian, Kazakh and English; the exchange side operates in Russian.

What to take instead of the #CryptoPay card

The card has very few peers, and the honest answer is that none of them do the same thing. They each address a different part of the problem. The alternatives below are the ones I would actually weigh against it, depending on what you need.

Young Card

• Overall score: 5.7 / 10.
• The issuing country, the card product, the cost and the funding rules are not officially stated.
• The reward side is different: cashback is paid in YNG tokens, at a rate that depends on the user’s Club tier. Essential holders get 0.1%, Gold 1.8%, Platinum 3.6%. Bronze and Silver are not stated.
• The case for it: you are in a country where Young Card operates, and you specifically want token-based rewards rather than tenge or USDT.

Coinbase Card

• Overall score: 6.4 / 10.
• Available in the US only, in all US states except Hawaii. Account opening follows the USA PATRIOT Act identity rules (name, address, date of birth, ID).
• Visa prepaid debit card, virtual or physical. All crypto is converted to US dollars for purchases and ATM withdrawals.
• “Zero spending fees and no annual fees”, per the published materials. A spread applies when Coinbase buys, sells or trades crypto at the moment of payment.
• Funding: link a bank account, deposit part of a paycheck into Coinbase, or spend directly from your crypto balance.
• Rewards: optional crypto rewards on every purchase, US Card users only, with a variable rate shown in the app, and the user picks from a rotating list of reward coins.
• The case for it: you live in the US (and not Hawaii), you want ATM cash access, you want online payments, and you want the option of paying in several different coins from a single balance.

OKX card

• Overall score: 6.2 / 10.
• EU plus Norway, launched on 28 January 2026; Iceland and Liechtenstein are excluded (one explainer describes the rollout as covering the “entire EEA”, which is inconsistent with the per-country list; the per-country list is the one I would trust). Rule by EEA user of OKX Europe Ltd., a MiCAR-licensed entity.
• Mastercard, euro-denominated virtual debit card linked to OKX Pay. The press release does not mention a physical card. Issued through a European licensed payment provider (the provider is not named in the public materials).
• No card fee in the explainer (as of May 2026).
• No transaction fee, no OKX FX fee. The conversion spread is 0.1% per the May 2026 explainer, against 0.4% in the launch press release. The explainer is the more recent of the two and the one I would use.
• Funding is in USDC or USDG, held in OKX Pay (via Convert or external deposit). Other coins must be converted first. There is no auto top-up, so a payment with an insufficient balance is declined.
• Cashback only on USDG purchases (USDC earns none). The published monthly caps in EUR are: Regular 2% up to 10; VIP1 4% up to 300; VIP2 4.5% up to 450; VIP3 5% up to 1,000; VIP4+ 10% up to 1,000. The body of the explainer says “2-5%” while the table says “10%” for VIP4+, which is inconsistent; the table is the one to read literally. A 30-day launch promo of up to 20% (VIP) or 15% (regular) is referenced in the launch press release.
• The case for it: you are in the EU or Norway, you hold stablecoins, and you want a euro card with mobile-wallet support and a published conversion spread.

A quick comparison:

If your reason for looking at #CryptoPay is “I live in Kazakhstan and want to spend USDT in a shop”, nothing on this list replaces it directly. If your reason is “I want a crypto card generally”, Coinbase Card and OKX are the closer fits to a real crypto card experience, and they are not constrained to a single country or a single currency.

Who I would recommend the #CryptoPay card to

I would recommend it to a fairly narrow reader: an adult resident of Kazakhstan, with USDT already on ATAIX Eurasia, who already pays most of their monthly expenses by tapping a phone at a till, and who does not need cash, online payments, transfers, or a multi-currency account. If that is you, the product does what it says on the tin, and the parties behind it — a long-established Kazakh bank and a freshly fully-licensed exchange — are credible.

I would not recommend it to anyone who:

• lives outside Kazakhstan, because the card is not issued to non-residents and there is no stated pathway to get it;
• needs online payments, because the card does not work on the internet;
• needs cash, because ATMs are not supported;
• needs to pay in several currencies, because the card account is in tenge and the FX fee on non-KZT settlement is not stated;
• needs ATM access, inter-bank transfers, or online subscriptions, because none of those are supported;
• is uncomfortable with a custodial wallet, because the crypto balance sits with ATAIX until payment;
• or who is a Russian citizen resident in Russia, because ATAIX has previously asked that group to close accounts and the current public pages do not restate the policy.

If you are somewhere in the middle — say, a Kazakh resident who also wants to pay online occasionally — the honest answer is that this product is not the one. You would do better with a regular tenge debit card from Bank CenterCredit for the online and ATM cases, and to keep ATAIX as the place where you convert between USDT and tenge when you need to.

The card, in short, does one thing well and several things not at all, and the right way to use it is to know that before you start.

Frequently asked questions

What is the #CryptoPay card?

The #CryptoPay card is a digital Mastercard World Black Edition debit card issued by Bank CenterCredit in Kazakhstan, in partnership with the ATAIX Eurasia crypto exchange. It is funded from a USDT balance held inside your ATAIX wallet, and the card account is in tenge (KZT). At payment, your USDT is converted to tenge and the merchant is charged in tenge.

How does the #CryptoPay card work?

You hold USDT on ATAIX Eurasia. When you tap the card at a till, the bank converts the USDT to KZT at the current exchange rate and charges the merchant in tenge. The card lives in your phone’s mobile wallet (Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay), so there is no plastic in the normal case, and the card cannot be used online or at an ATM.

Is #CryptoPay a bank?

No. #CryptoPay is a product name, not a company. The card is issued by Bank CenterCredit (BCC), a Kazakh bank, and the crypto side is run by ATAIX Eurasia Ltd., a licensed exchange in Astana. So #CryptoPay is the product of a partnership between a bank and an exchange, not a bank in itself.

Who owns #CryptoPay?

The product is a partnership between Bank CenterCredit (the card issuer) and ATAIX Eurasia (the exchange). The bank’s general banking licence is No. 1.1.856.145, and the exchange’s AFSA licence is AFSA-A-LA-2025-0022 dated 15 October 2025. There is no separate owner of the #CryptoPay brand beyond that partnership as far as the public pages say.

Is the #CryptoPay card available in my country?

The public pages only describe issuance to residents of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and only with an ATAIX Eurasia account in “Investor” or “Premium” status. There is no stated pathway to obtain the card from outside Kazakhstan, and I have not seen a published list of supported countries of residence. If you are not a Kazakhstan resident, the realistic answer today is that the card is not for you.

How do I get the #CryptoPay card?

You register on ATAIX Eurasia and complete identity verification to Investor or Premium status, then open the card from the bcc.kz app under “New product or account” → #CryptoPay, confirm by e-mail to the address you used at ATAIX, and add the card to Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. ATAIX says the confirmation e-mail arrives within two hours.

Does the #CryptoPay card require KYC?

Yes. You must complete identity verification on ATAIX Eurasia to reach Investor or Premium status before you can open the card. The exact documents, processing time and rejection criteria are not stated on the public pages; that is something to confirm with the exchange directly when you start.

How do I top up the #CryptoPay card?

You fund the card from your ATAIX Eurasia wallet balance. The only cryptocurrency accepted for spending is USDT, and ATAIX accepts USDT deposits on the BSC, ETH and TRON networks, with a deposit fee of 0.00 and a minimum deposit of 0.01 USDT. You can also send fiat into the exchange and convert it to USDT inside the ATAIX app.

How do I add the #CryptoPay card to Apple Wallet?

Open the card in the bcc.kz app once it is open and confirmed, and follow the in-app flow to add it to Apple Pay. The same flow works for Google Pay and Samsung Pay. The bank confirms that tokenisation in those three wallets is supported.

Is the #CryptoPay card safe?

The parties behind it are licensed: Bank CenterCredit holds a Kazakh general banking licence, and ATAIX Eurasia holds a full AFSA licence for digital asset trading, custody and dealing. That said, the crypto balance is custodial, the FX fee is not published, and I did not find a Trustpilot page or a Reddit thread for the product, so user-reported reassurance is thin. Treat the licences as the floor of your safety check, and the published gaps as reasons to test the product with small amounts first.

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