Mastercard crypto cards in the UK 2026: no card we can rank after 1inch closed, FCA status, and what changes in October 2027

How I cover the UK from outside: I do not live there, so every UK-specific claim in this guide comes from the FCA register and the issuer's own UK terms and fee documents. Where a card claims "FCA registered" I search the firm on the FCA's register and check that the entry is current and belongs to the company that actually runs the UK product, not a parent or a sister firm. GBP top-up gets the same treatment: some issuers say "GBP top-up" and mean a debit-card payment, which usually costs a percentage, where a Faster Payments transfer is typically free. Corrections from UK readers are welcome.

Why specifically Mastercard for UK crypto spending

For UK retail spending, Mastercard and Visa are practically interchangeable: both work everywhere, both run on the same UK acquirer infrastructure (Worldpay, Barclaycard Merchant Services), and both support Apple Pay and Google Pay. The Mastercard angle for UK crypto users is on the issuer side, not the merchant side.

The Mastercard pool is deep, though Visa's is deeper. Our database counts 15 UK-available Mastercard crypto cards against 18 on Visa. I used to claim the opposite here and that was wrong. This guide ranks on FCA register status and fees, not on which network has more cards.

Mastercard's stablecoin push matters. Mastercard has been building its own stablecoin settlement stack through partnerships and acquisitions since 2024, separate from the Stripe-owned Bridge rail that Visa uses for consumer cards. The clearest signal is BVNK: on 17 March 2026 Mastercard agreed to buy the London-based stablecoin-payments firm for up to $1.8B, including $300M in contingent payments, and it completed the deal on 3 August 2026. Mastercard pitches BVNK at cross-border B2B payments, remittances, payouts and settlement, not at consumer cards, so a UK cardholder should not expect cheaper FX from it any time soon. Visa plus Bridge is closer to live consumer use.

The practical answer: pick the card based on FCA status, fees, and product features. The network is a secondary concern at best.

Why this guide ranks no UK Mastercard crypto card

A note on the shape of this list: it started as a top five. Binance Card held the #2 slot until Binance's card pages (July 2026) stopped offering it in the UK: the three programmes it runs now cover Brazil, Argentina and a global programme for Latin America, the CIS, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific. MetaMask Card then inherited #2, and it has since paused new UK sign-ups too (details below). Rather than pad the list with weaker picks, I trimmed it to three. In September 2026 two more left. Wirex went because it does not say which scheme a UK card runs on. CoinJar went because it closed its card to UK customers on 30 June 2024, a change this guide missed for more than two years. That left one ranked card, 1inch, and in October 2026 1inch closed its card to new sign-ups too. All four departures are explained below.

Closed: 1inch Debit Card, no new sign-ups since October 2026

The 1inch Debit Card held #1 here until it closed. 1inch's card FAQ now says the programme "is being discontinued" and that "new sign-ups are closed and the programme is winding down". 1inch gives no reason and no closure date; the earliest public report of the notice is from 20 October 2026, so sign-ups closed on that date or before.

If you hold the card, 1inch says to move your balance out "at the latest by 18 December 2026". Under section 16 of the Monavate issuer terms, funds can be redeemed for up to six years after an account closes.

How to check a UK card's network yourself

Look for the scheme named in the issuer's UK card terms or fee document, not on the marketing page. Wirex shows why: its pages say a card comes on Visa or Mastercard without saying which one a UK customer gets. Then search the firm that runs the UK product on the FCA register and check that the entry is current and belongs to that firm, not a parent or a sister company.

Read our crypto card fees explained primer for how transaction fees and FX stack on UK cards.

For the broader self-custody vs custodial trade-off (where keys live, what happens if the issuer pulls UK service), see our self-custody vs custodial guide.

Not ranked: Wirex Card, no scheme named for a UK card

Wirex sat at #1 here until this update, and it left the ranking over the one thing this guide is about: the network. The Wirex One terms now name Wirex Limited as the provider of the card service in the EEA, the UK and the rest of the world. Wirex says Premium and Elite get a plastic card on either Visa or Mastercard and Private and Bespoke a metal Visa, but nothing we read says which scheme a UK customer receives or whether you can choose, so we cannot list it as a UK Mastercard. If Wirex names the scheme for UK cards, it goes back into the ranking.

On GBP top-up Wirex has what this guide looks for. Its help centre says you can fund a Wirex One GBP account "with a Faster Payments transfer from any UK bank", and its card fee table gives the foreign transaction fee as "Free". The 8% cashback rate sounds wild but applies only at the top tier, which needs a $50,000 portfolio with 10% of it held in WPAY, and even there redemption is capped at $2,000 a month. At the entry tier you sit at 0.5% with a $25 monthly cap. Wirex did fix the part that used to matter most, paying cashback in USD instead of its own token, but treat the rate as a small bonus. One caveat on cost: that one line is the whole card fee table, and the terms give the address of their Fees and Limits Schedule as a placeholder.

Best for: UK readers who want GBP in by Faster Payments and do not mind which scheme the card runs on.

Get Wirex CardPartner link.

Not ranked: CoinJar Card, closed to UK customers since June 2024

CoinJar took #1 when Wirex left, and it should not have been listed at all. CoinJar's own UK card page carried the notice "On 30/6/24, the CoinJar Card program will be discontinued for our UK customers" (archived copy, June 2024). Today that address sends you to CoinJar's UK home page, and the card page that remains says the card "is a prepaid Mastercard issued by EML Payment Solutions Limited ABN 30 131 436 532 AFSL 404131", an Australian licence. CoinJar's UK help centre adds that its rewards programme ended for UK customers on 6 November 2023, "including CoinJar Card holders". The UK exchange still takes GBP by Faster Payments; there is no CoinJar card to spend it with.

On pause: MetaMask Card, no new UK sign-ups

MetaMask Card held the #2 slot here until this update. The product itself has not changed: self-custody Mastercard, spends straight from your wallet, a 1% cross-border fee when the merchant is abroad plus 0.5% on a stablecoin spent in a currency that is neither yours nor the merchant's (the $199 Metal tier waived the 1%, but its orders have been paused since 2 June 2026), 1% mUSD cashback on the virtual card. What changed is availability. As of my July 24, 2026 check, metamask.io/card and the official card FAQ both state that "MetaMask has temporarily paused new Card sign-ups in the United States and the United Kingdom", and the UK is missing from the supported-country list on the card page. A new UK resident cannot get this card today, which is the one test every ranked card has to pass. Existing UK holders are unaffected and keep spending as before. If MetaMask reopens UK sign-ups, the card goes back into the ranking. Until then it sits here, labelled as paused.

FCA register status by issuer

Until October 2027 the only crypto-specific legal requirement for firms serving UK users is to be on the FCA AML register. Card issuance is regulated separately under the FCA's e-money rules. This is where Wirex sits. The 1inch card's UK operator, Monavate Onchain Ltd (firm reference 927401), is no longer in the table because the card closed to new sign-ups.

Register entries as last checked for this guide. Always check the current FCA register before signing up.

GBP fees compared on £2,000/mo of UK spending

The scenario: £2,000 a month, or £24,000 a year, of mostly UK-domestic spending (90% UK, 10% abroad). Only published fee lines are counted.

No card left in this guide can be priced on that scenario. 1inch was the only one with enough published fees, and it closed to new sign-ups by 20 October 2026. Wirex publishes one card fee line, a foreign transaction fee of "Free", and its terms add that on purchases in another currency "applicable exchange rates (including those set by the relevant card scheme or service providers) and any associated mark-ups or fees will apply" without giving a rate, so we do not print a net cost for it. Its entry-tier 0.5% cashback would return £10 a month, under that tier's $25 monthly redemption cap.

Capital Gains Tax considerations

HMRC treats crypto card spending as a disposal for Capital Gains Tax. Each transaction can trigger CGT on the gain between acquisition price and price-at-spend. Three UK-specific notes:

• £3,000 annual exemption (2026/2027). The allowance was cut twice in two years: £12,300 in 2022/2023, £6,000 in 2023/2024, £3,000 from April 2024 onward. A year of card spending from appreciated BTC or ETH can use it up.
• Stablecoin spending is simpler. Spending USDC/USDT creates small CGT events because USD-pegged tokens don't fluctuate much against the pound. BTC/ETH spending creates larger and more variable CGT events.
• Self Assessment is on you. Since 1 January 2026 UK crypto platforms collect customer and transaction data for HMRC under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, with the first reports due in 2027, but that does not file your return. You track and self-report. Tools like Recap and Koinly generate UK-formatted reports from card transaction history.

This is general information, not tax advice. Consult an accountant for your specific situation. See HMRC's cryptoassets tax guidance for current guidance.

What changes in October 2027

The FCA takes applications under its new cryptoasset regime from September 30, 2026 to February 28, 2027, and the regime commences October 25, 2027. Only firms that file inside that window keep taking new customers while the FCA decides; late filers are limited to run-off, and firms that never apply must wind down UK crypto business before the commencement date. Three things will change for UK Mastercard crypto users:

• Authorisation replaces registration. Crypto firms serving UK users need full FCA authorisation, not just AML registration, and a firm without it cannot take new UK customers once the regime commences.
• Marketing rules stay. The financial promotions regime has applied to crypto firms since October 2023, so a cashback headline such as "up to 8%" still has to be fair, clear and not misleading, which is hard to square with a top tier few users reach.
• Custody rules arrive. The FCA published its final rules for the regime on 30 June 2026, and custodial issuers will hold customers' crypto under them. A self-custody card keeps the coins out of the issuer's hands altogether, but none is ranked here: MetaMask, the self-custody option this guide used to list, has paused UK sign-ups.

We update this guide when an issuer's register entry changes.

Three of the 14 other UK Mastercards

Our database counts 15 Mastercard crypto cards that name the UK, which leaves 14 beyond Wirex. CoinJar and 1inch are not among them, since both cards closed to new UK customers. We list three of them here, unranked, and the rest are in the full database.

• Kraken Card. Mastercard Debit from Kraken, UK and EEA availability, 0% FX with balance-tiered cashback up to 2%, and GBP in by Faster Payments. Also shipped as the Krak Card design; Kraken says the two are one product.
• SwissBorg Card. Custodial Mastercard Debit from Swiss company SwissBorg that spends crypto from the SwissBorg app; the UK is on its supported-country list.
• Zebec Card. Mastercard Prepaid with minimal-KYC tiers elsewhere; UK users must complete KYC.

THORWallet Card is back, as a different card. Its earlier card ran on Fiat24, which is not taking new clients; the Mastercard sold now runs on the Unblock programme, and the United Kingdom is on its country list. Only the Basic virtual card is open to UK residents, since paid Premium is not sold to them, and Basic earns no cashback, charges a 1.5% markup on top of Mastercard rates and comes from a bank THORWallet does not name, so it stays off this list.

Three cards have left this section. Ready Card closed to new orders on 29 July 2026, and issued cards are being deactivated. Solflare Card stopped working on 28 July 2026 when its issuing partner Kulipa wound down. Bit.Store Card closed its physical card after its issuer, Paytend Europe UAB, lost its EMI licence with effect from 3 March 2026. That notice does not cover the virtual card, and we could not confirm that a new customer can still order one.

For UK crypto cards on any network, Visa included, see our general UK guide.

Frequently asked questions