Shutdown event

What happened to the Trustee, CEX.IO and Mercuryo Spend cards

Trustee Card, CEX.IO Card and Mercuryo Spend Card closed to new applications between 2026-01-01 and 2026-02-03, after KNF payment-institution licence…

The event: KNF payment-institution licence revocation, 21 Jan 2026.

Effective dates 2026-01-01 to 2026-02-03. Each date is the day the card became unobtainable, which is not always the day cards stopped working — see the full study for how the two shapes are counted.

Researched and written by Mihail B. Published 2026-08-11, updated 2026-08-20.

Trustee Card

Issuer: Quicko sp. z o.o.

What happened: KNF revoked Quicko payment-institution authorisation; Quicko-issued card stopped 3 Feb 2026

Unobtainable from: 2026-02-03

Outcome: relaunched — the brand sells a card today

Trustee is one of the two cards in this dataset that came back, and the only one that came back in part. Its Quicko-issued card was discontinued in the cascade; Trustee sells an obtainable virtual card again, while the physical card is marked temporarily unavailable behind a waitlist. Trustee does not name the successor issuer anywhere on its own properties.

Alternatives: none needed. The brand's current card is Trustee Card.

Sources: primary · corroborating · outcome

CEX.IO Card

Issuer: Quicko sp. z o.o.

What happened: Card partner lost payment-institution licence; CEX.IO paused onboarding and new-card issuance with immediate effect, and card payments became unavailable from 3 Feb 2026

Unobtainable from: 2026-02-03

Outcome: shutdown — not obtainable today

Alternatives to the CEX.IO Card: closest obtainable cards

Crypto.com Visa Card (same region, custody and scheme)
Spritz Card (same region, custody and scheme)
Zypto Card (same region, custody and scheme)

Derived shortlist, not a tested recommendation: each card is sold where the CEX.IO Card was sold, and matches its custody model or card scheme where marked. No issuer calls any of them a successor, and nobody has held them side by side.

Sources: primary · corroborating

Mercuryo Spend Card

Issuer: Quicko sp. z o.o.

What happened: Mercuryo retired its Quicko-issued card ahead of the KNF revocation; old card stopped 1 Jan 2026

Unobtainable from: 2026-01-01

Outcome: shutdown — not obtainable today

Mercuryo moved Spend off Quicko before the KNF action, then closed the successor Paynetics programme: last usable day 10 Jul 2026, card accounts closed 11 Jul 2026.

Alternatives to the Mercuryo Spend Card: closest obtainable cards

Bleap Card (same region, custody and scheme)
xPortal Card (same region, custody and scheme)
Holyheld Card (same region, custody and scheme)

Derived shortlist, not a tested recommendation: each card is sold where the Mercuryo Spend Card was sold, and matches its custody model or card scheme where marked. No issuer calls any of them a successor, and nobody has held them side by side.

Sources: primary · corroborating · outcome

This is one event from the full shutdown study, which covers every verified closure we track, how the events group, and what the pattern does and does not prove. If you are here because one of these cards was yours, the directory of closed cards lists the closest cards still on sale beside each one.