Ready Card review 2026: is it available, what it costs, who it fits

Not right now. Ready Card ordering is paused, existing cards are being deactivated and no relaunch date has been published, so any review today is partly a status report. If you want a self-custody spending card in the EEA or UK, Gnosis Pay is the safer pick at the moment. Treat Ready as a wait-and-see option.

POOL BTC is an independent comparison site. We are not a card issuer, we have no account at Ready, and this is not financial advice. The figures below come from Ready's own help center, blog and legal pages, checked on 2026-10-03. Where the official pages are silent we say so, and where a press report adds something Ready does not confirm, we label it.

What is the Ready Card?

The Ready Card is a Mastercard that spends USDC straight from a Ready smart wallet, the product that used to be called Argent. The wallet is self-custody: you hold the keys, and the card works through a revocable session key. It came in two tiers, Lite and Metal, and was sold in the EEA and the UK.

The main Ready app uses passkeys and has no seed phrase, according to Ready's own documentation. A separate app, Ready X, uses a seed phrase and keeps Starknet support. Before the card stopped working, Ready positioned it as a way to spend stablecoins without moving them to an exchange first.

Can you order a Ready Card today?

No. Ready's help center says cards are not available to order, on an article last updated on July 20, 2026. Another help article, updated on September 1, 2026, says existing cards are being deactivated because the current card provider can no longer deliver the reliability Ready requires. Ready says it is working with new partners but gives no date.

Press reports add detail that Ready's own pages do not. The Defiant reported on July 30, 2026 that the issuer Kulipa wound down and the card program stopped on July 29. Cointelegraph reported on June 17, 2026 that cards outside the EEA had been switched off earlier with very little notice. We could not find the issuer named on Ready's help pages, so treat the Kulipa name as a press report.

Ready also announced a product called Community Cards on August 6, 2026, starting with an esports theme. No launch date, issuer, fees, countries or terms had been published as of our check. On August 12, 2026 Ready announced that the app is moving from Starknet to Base, and said the card migration is a separate process. Its help page adds that when a new card program launches, you will need to create a new Ready account and move funds.

How much did the Ready Card cost?

Before it stopped, Lite cost nothing and Metal cost 120 USD a year. Metal had a 0% foreign exchange fee and Lite had 1%. Both had 0% top-up and conversion fees. Lite had no free ATM allowance, while Metal allowed 800 USD a month before a 2% fee applied. These figures come from Ready's perks FAQ, last updated on May 6, 2026.

Our own cards page used to list a free ATM allowance of 200 USD a month for Lite. We could not find that figure on any official Ready page, and the official table shows no free allowance for Lite, so we follow the official table. The older limits we found, 5,000 USD per transaction, 10,000 USD per day, 30,000 USD per month, and 500 USD per day or 2,500 USD per month at ATMs, come from a February 14, 2025 Ready blog post. They may have changed since, and none of this can be tested while ordering is closed.

What happened to the cashback?

Cashback ended on May 1, 2026 and was replaced by Ready Rewards points. Before that date Metal paid 3% back in STRK and Lite paid 0.5%, both capped at 150 USD a month. Accrued cashback was paid out in STRK by May 15, 2026. Points are not paid in tokens, and Lite earns none on card spend.

Under the points program, Metal earned 3 points per 1 USD on card spend and 0.6 points per 1 USD on token trades. Lite earned 0 points on card spend and 0.3 points per 1 USD on token trades. Points can refund eligible card purchases in USDC, and Ready listed a 25% back option for some subscriptions as coming soon.

Metal members could add boosts. Referring two friends doubled points for 30 days, and being among the 100 most frequent card users in a month doubled them for the next month. With both boosts active the ceiling was 9 points per 1 USD. Ready says points do not expire while the program is active, and its deactivation notice says points are kept for future redemption.

Who did the Ready Card fit, and who did it not?

It fit people in the EEA or UK who already keep stablecoins in a self-custody wallet and want to spend them without trusting an exchange with the balance. Metal made sense for regular travelers, thanks to 0% foreign exchange and the ATM allowance. Lite suited occasional use at a low cost, but it earned nothing on card spend.

It did not fit anyone outside the EEA and UK, because the card was never issued there. It did not fit people who need ATM cash often on Lite, since every withdrawal cost at least 1 USD. It also did not fit anyone who needs a card this month: with ordering closed, the question is moot until Ready names a new partner and publishes terms.

Which countries and restrictions apply?

Issuance covered the EEA and the UK, plus Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, per a card tracker that follows Ready. Spending worked wherever Mastercard is accepted, in more than 140 countries according to Ready's marketing.

Russia is excluded from Ready's cashback and points program, together with mainland China and Iran, per the country exclusions article on the help center. Because the card was issued only in the EEA and UK, residents of Russia and other CIS countries could not get one under the old program. Argentina and the rest of Latin America are not mentioned on the official pages we checked, and the issuance area did not include them. For other cards that do work in those regions, see our crypto cards by region guide.

Is the Ready Card safe and self-custody?

The wallet design held up better than the card layer. In the Ready app, funds sit in a smart contract wallet controlled by your passkey, and the card uses a session key you can revoke. When the card issuer failed in July, the card stopped but the wallet balance was unaffected, per press and tracker reports. Ready's help center states that the problem was the card provider.

On the security record, a card tracker citing Ready's own material says there were no breaches in nine years of wallet operation. We could not find that claim, or any smart contract audit report, on Ready's official pages, so we cannot confirm it. Guardian or social recovery, a feature of the old Argent wallet, is not described in the current Ready documentation we checked.

KYC for the card was handled by the issuer, not by Ready. The real lesson is about dependency: self-custody covered the money, but the card still depended on one centralized issuer, and according to the press reports above it stopped for non-EEA users on June 16 and for everyone by July 29, 2026.

How to start with Ready now

You cannot get a card today, so the sourced steps are about waiting well, not ordering.

1. Open the Ready help center article on card availability and check its update date before doing anything else.
2. If you hold a Ready wallet, read the Base migration article and follow its instructions for moving funds, because the app is leaving Starknet.
3. Keep any points you earned. Ready says they are preserved for future redemption.
4. Do not pay for a Metal subscription or a card from any third party who claims to sell a working Ready Card. Ready's own pages say none can be ordered.
5. If you want to follow the relaunch, you can use our referral link to the Ready app. It does not give you a card today, and Ready has not said whether its referral rewards will carry over to the new program.

Before the shutdown, Ready's referral program paid 15 USD to both sides if a new user ordered Metal and spent 50 USD. It could not be completed while ordering is closed.

What are the risks?

The main risk is simple: you may wait months for a card that returns with different fees. Community Cards has no published terms, so the Lite and Metal numbers above are history, not a promise.

Other risks follow from the story so far. A single issuer failure ended the whole program. Non-EEA users lost their cards with about an hour of notice on June 16, 2026, per Cointelegraph. Apple Pay was listed as coming soon and never shipped before the stop. The app is also changing chains from Starknet to Base, which means a new account and a fund transfer when the card returns. None of this is a prediction about price or an investment view. It is a description of how fragile a card program can be.

How does Ready compare with Gnosis Pay, KAST and ether.fi?

Gnosis Pay is the closest match: a self-custody card that works today in the EEA, the UK and some Latin American countries. KAST is custodial but offers the highest headline cashback. ether.fi Cash is non-custodial and the broadest in Latin America. None of the three accepts Russia, and Ready is currently the only one you cannot order.

The Gnosis Pay, KAST and ether.fi figures come from each product's own help center and legal pages, checked on 2026-10-03. KAST lists 170 or more countries but no full country list, so check your country in the app before relying on it. For a wider side-by-side with more issuers, see our crypto card comparison. If you plan to fund a card from mining income, you can estimate that income with our mining calculator.

FAQ

Is the Ready Card still working?

No. Ready's help center says cards are not available to order, and existing cards are being deactivated. Press reports say the issuer wound down in late July 2026. Check the help center for the latest status before acting on anything here.

Is Ready Card cashback still paid?

No. Cashback ended on May 1, 2026 and was replaced by Ready Rewards points. Cashback earned before that date was paid in STRK by May 15, 2026. Points do not expire while the program is active, and Ready says they are kept for future redemption.

Can I get a Ready Card in Russia, Argentina or Latin America?

Not under the old program. Cards were issued in the EEA and UK only, and Russia is also excluded from rewards. The official pages do not mention Argentina. Ether.fi Cash and Gnosis Pay both list Argentina, so check them if you live there.

Is the Ready wallet safe if the card is gone?

The wallet is self-custody, and press reports say balances were unaffected when the issuer stopped. We could not confirm audit reports or a breach history on Ready's official pages. Follow the Base migration article before moving funds, and keep your recovery method safe.

What will the new Ready card cost?

Not stated on the official site as of 2026-10-03. Ready has announced Community Cards without fees, countries or an issuer. The Lite and Metal prices in this article describe the old program and may not carry over.

Which card should I use instead?

In the EEA or UK with a self-custody preference, Gnosis Pay is the closest match today. For Latin America, ether.fi Cash lists the most countries. Check each issuer's current page before you register, because cashback programs in this market change often.

This article contains a referral link: we may receive a reward if you register through it. It does not change the figures or conclusions.