What is CryptoPay (CPAY)?

Cryptocurrency has long struggled with the problem of having a very limited use case for actually spending it. The simple reality is that people are very comfortable with the current fiat currency system, so getting them to change to an entirely foreign system has proven difficult. 

Fortunately, solutions have popped up that allow cryptocurrency holders to use their cryptocurrency as a debit card. Many of these solutions operate almost exactly like a debit card – a user deposits crypto onto an exchange and uses the exchange issued card as a debit card. These cards are typically issued by one of the major credit card companies like Visa or Mastercard, so they are accepted everywhere. 

Now, a lot of these companies have appeared over the years. Some have been legitimate while others have been not so legitimate. The one we will discuss today is one of the pioneers in the industry as it has been around since 2013. Of course, we are talking about CryptoPay. This article will cover absolutely everything you need to know about CryptoPay.

What is CryptoPay?

As mentioned in the introduction, CryptoPay is a company that issues prepaid cryptocurrency cards. Customers can send cryptocurrency to CryptoPay and then use a CryptoPay card the same way they would use a debit card. 

CryptoPay offers more than just that, though. They also have an exchange that has over 35 cryptocurrencies available for purchase and even return up to 10% on stablecoin deposits staked on the platform. 

The company is still most well-known for its prepaid cards. We do have some concerns about the stated APY of staking on the platform, which we will cover in a later section. 

What is CPAY?

CPAY is the native token on CryptoPay. CryptoPay launched via an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2013 and CPAY were the tokens that were issued to investors. It’s an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.

Unfortunately, we cannot find much information on the token. It appears that CryptoPay no longer uses the token as the price is $0.0004 and the total market cap of the token is $38,000. 

Is It Worth Using The CryptoPay Card?

First of all, the CryptoPay card is only available to residents of the United Kingdom, European Economic Area (EEA), Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. It is not available to Americans.

The fact that it’s not available to Americans is one reason that CryptoPay is not as well-known as some of its competitors. 

Anyway, it’s not a particularly bad card in terms of fees. But we do not quite see the point of using a card like this. Using a card like this does not increase the exposure of cryptocurrency – it’s basically a prepaid card funded with cryptocurrency rather than fiat currency. The merchant sees it as just another Visa card. 

As for the fees, they still exist and they are higher for the user than simply using a credit card (merchant pays fees with credit cards). The main fee that most users of the CryptoPay card will encounter is the 1% fee to load and unload the card. 

This means that a cardholder must pay 1% of the total amount they load onto the card, which is ridiculous. It’s far cheaper to simply use a debit card. There’s also a 1 GBP or 1 EUR service fee charged every month. 

Our final verdict on the CryptoPay card is that it’s really not worth it due to the fees. It’s much more economical to simply use a debit card or even a credit card if you pay the credit card off every month. 

Is CryptoPay Earn Worth It?

CryptoPay also has an Earn feature, which allows depositors to earn money on cryptocurrency deposited on the platform. The rates are high, but nothing ridiculous. The rates typically range from 5% to 14% per year. 

It’s not clear how exactly CryptoPay earns this money. And after the collapse of Celsius we would be extremely skeptical about investing in any service like this. 

What Is The Point of CryptoPay?

So, the CryptoPay card can be used like a debit card, but it has significantly more fees than a credit card. What exactly is the point of a company like this? Would it not be more economical to simply sell your cryptocurrency for fiat currency, deposit the fiat currency into a bank account, and spend it with a debit card or cash?

With that said, the point of CryptoPay is to ride on the success of the cryptocurrency brand. It’s not a sound economic decision to use the CryptoPay card. Instead, it’s a purely emotional decision made by those that strongly support cryptocurrency. 

The worst part is that the CryptoPay card does not even increase the exposure of cryptocurrency. Merchants see the transaction as a Visa transaction rather than a crypto transaction. 

It would be much more beneficial for cryptocurrency adoption for users to badger companies about accepting payments via the Lightning Network.

Final Thoughts

To summarize, CryptoPay is a company that has offered cryptocurrency payment solutions since 2013. The flagship product of the company is their CryptoPay card that allows users to load a prepaid card with Bitcoin and use it anywhere a Visa card is accepted. Other services offered on the platform include an earn feature that allows depositors to earn interest on cryptocurrency deposits and a solutions for businesses to accept cryptocurrency payments.