After 6 months of daily use, here's our honest take on the Nexo crypto credit card — including the fine print they don't put on the landing page.
The Nexo Card is a crypto-backed credit line card that lets you spend the value of your crypto portfolio without actually selling it. Think of it as borrowing against your crypto at competitive rates, with a Visa card as the interface.
Unlike traditional crypto debit cards that require you to convert and load crypto before spending, Nexo keeps your assets intact while extending you a line of credit. This is a crucial distinction for long-term holders who don't want to trigger taxable events every time they buy coffee.
One of Nexo's biggest selling points is the fee structure — or rather, the lack of one:
| Card Issuance | Free |
| Monthly Fee | Free |
| FX Conversion | 0% (Mastercard rate) |
| ATM Withdrawal | Free (first 2/month) |
| Credit Line APR | 0% - 13.9% (loyalty tier dependent) |
| Replacement Card | $5 |
The catch? The best rates (0% APR) require you to hold a significant amount of NEXO tokens — which is a common playbook in crypto card products. For most users, the effective APR will be around 6.9%-13.9%.
Nexo offers up to 2% cashback on all purchases, paid in crypto of your choice (BTC, ETH, or NEXO tokens). The cashback rate depends on your loyalty tier:
| Loyalty Tier | NEXO % of Portfolio | Cashback Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Base | < 1% | 0.5% |
| Silver | 1-5% | 1.0% |
| Gold | 5-10% | 1.5% |
| Platinum | > 10% | 2.0% |
Nexo scores well on security: assets are custodied by BitGo and Ledger Vault, there's real-time transaction alerts, the ability to freeze/unfreeze your card instantly, and 3D Secure for online payments. They also carry $775M in insurance on custodied assets.
We've been using the Nexo Card as a daily driver since September 2025. Here's what stood out:
The onboarding was fast — KYC took under 10 minutes and the virtual card was ready to use immediately via Apple Pay. The physical card (metal, by the way) arrived in about 2 weeks to the UK.
Day-to-day spending was seamless. It works exactly like a regular Visa card. The app shows your credit utilisation in real-time, and auto-repayment options make managing the credit line straightforward.
The one friction point: if your collateral value drops significantly, you'll get a margin call notification. This happened to us once during a market dip. Nexo gives you 48 hours to top up before they liquidate — which is standard but worth knowing.
| Feature | Nexo Card | Crypto.com | Coinbase Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Credit Line | Prepaid Debit | Debit |
| Max Cashback | 2% | 5% | 4% |
| Sell Crypto to Spend? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly Fee | Free | Free* | Free |
| FX Fee | 0% | 0-2% | 2.49% |
If you want to unlock the value of your crypto without selling, Nexo is the most polished product on the market. The zero-fee structure and slick UX make it a genuine daily-use card. The dependency on NEXO token holdings for best rates is the main downside — but that's the reality of most crypto card ecosystems.
Sign up through our link and get $25 in BTC as a welcome bonus.
Get the Nexo Card →* This is an affiliate link. ApplyCryptoCard earns a commission at no extra cost to you. How we make money.