Most articles about crypto cards are written either by affiliates or by companies promoting their own product. The problem is almost nobody asks actual users what they really care about...
Recently, Daniel Markson ran a month-long survey campaign directly inside the CoinMarketCap community. _More than 390 active users participated. _These weren’t random Twitter accounts or paid focus groups — these were traders, travelers, and everyday crypto users already using cards from Binance, Crypto.com, WhіteBIT, Bybit, Coinbase, and others.
And honestly, this is probably one of the most useful pieces of retail crypto infrastructure data we’ve seen in a while, because for once, the industry got feedback from people actually using these products in real life.
One thing became clear almost immediately from the survey results: users are tired of gimmicks.
People are not searching for the future of payments - they want cards that work consistently: no freezes, no random declines, no withdrawal delays, no support tickets waiting 3 days for an answer.
According to the survey, 62% of respondents said 24/7 support is essential, especially for users traveling internationally.
That makes sense - if someone is in Thailand, Portugal, or Argentina and their card suddenly stops working, business hours are meaningless.
And another strong signal:
69.6% said global usability matters more than regional optimization. People don’t want "best in Europe" or "great for Asia". They want one card that works everywhere.
This sounds obvious, but a lot of crypto card providers still behave like regional fintech startups instead of global financial products.
Different Platforms Win Different Use Cases
The most interesting part of the survey is that there was no absolute winner: users split their preferences depending on what they actually do with crypto.
Binance dominated among active traders and users optimizing fees. Around 42.9% considered it the strongest infrastructure-wise, while 44.2% preferred it for profitability.
Crypto.com performed especially well among frequent travelers and users making international payments.
Bybit stood out in one specific category: security for large balances. That’s important because trust becomes a completely different conversation once users store serious amounts of money on a platform.
Also there’s WhitеВIT Nоva — probably one of the more interesting cases in the dataset: it didn’t dominate any single category, but it stayed consistently competitive across multiple categories at onc - BTC usage hub, travel usage, and profitability.
A lot of users are no longer looking for maximum cashback or hyper-optimized reward systems. They want _stable products with predictable behavior. _Especially after several years of aggressive reward cuts across the industry.
One of the strongest insights from the survey had nothing to do with features: it was trust.
About 35% of users said unexpected policy changes were the biggest red flag for crypto cards.
That includes:
- sudden cashback reductions,
- changing withdrawal limits,
- hidden fee updates,
- or reward systems being quietly downgraded.
This is something many companies still underestimate. Users can tolerate imperfect products. What they don’t tolerate is unpredictability.
Especially in crypto, where trust is already fragile by default.
Why This Data Actually Matters
The crypto card market is still relatively young compared to traditional fintech. Most companies rely on internal analytics, transaction data, or social media sentiment.
But direct user surveys inside large crypto-native communities offer something different: behavioral context. Not just what users do — but why they choose certain platforms over others.
That matters both for retail users comparing products and for companies building the next generation of crypto payment infrastructure. Because the takeaway from this survey is surprisingly simple:
The market doesn't wants one best crypto card, but products optimized for specific lifestyles:
trading,
travel,
security,
everyday spending,
or long-term stability.
And platforms that understand this segmentation early will probably win the next stage of adoption.
