Different Crypto Cards Can Share the Same Issuer
On July 28, 2026, virtual and physical Solflare cards stopped working because Kulipa, their card issuing partner, could no longer support the program. The wallet kept working. Funds held in users' own wallets remained accessible, but payments and subscription renewals through those cards stopped.
Keeping control of the money had not kept the payment service running. For someone carrying a second crypto card, the next question is whether that card depends on the same company that just stopped supporting the first one. A different app and logo do not answer it.
The brand is not necessarily the card issuer
The business you sign up with may run the app, customer support and rewards without issuing the card itself. A card program can involve several roles:
- The brand or program manager runs the customer-facing product and its commercial terms.
- The issuer provides the card under the applicable cardholder agreement and network arrangements.
- Infrastructure providers handle services such as transaction authorization, processing and settlement.
- The balance provider or custodian holds the spending funds; with a self-custodial design, the assets may instead remain in the user's wallet until payment.
One company can perform several roles, and a provider described as an issuing partner is not necessarily the licensed entity named in the cardholder agreement. Visa or Mastercard identifies the card network, not the company holding your balance. The company names in the agreements explain more than the logos on the card.
For the European Economic Area editions of Krak Card and OKX Card, the named issuer is UAB Monavate in Lithuania. They have separate customer-facing products but share that issuing entity. OKX Europe Limited manages the OKX program. In the UK Krak arrangement, Monavate issues the card while Kraken provides the separate e-money wallet.
That overlap is a shared dependency, not evidence that either card is about to stop working. An incident limited to one program need not affect the other. But if the shared issuing service becomes unavailable to both, changing from one brand to the other does not remove that dependency.
Region changes the picture. The UK Krak issuer is Monavate Limited, a different legal entity from UAB Monavate. The US Krak card is issued by Lead Bank, managed by Stripe and operated by Payward Interactive, Inc. A list that assigns just one issuer to Krak worldwide misses the arrangement a US cardholder actually uses. Check the agreement for the version available to your residence, not another country's launch announcement.
The same providers appear behind several card brands
These relationships apply to the named programs, not necessarily every card sold under each brand. An issuer's name in regional terms does not establish that new applications are currently open there.
- Gnosis Pay: Monavate Ltd issues the UK card and UAB Monavate the EEA card. Gnosis Pay supplies the technical platform and manages the program. Closure notice.
- Krak Card: Monavate issues the UK and EEA cards through the separate entities above. Payward Ireland Limited provides the EEA e-money wallet, separately from the card issuer. The US card uses Lead Bank instead. Regional agreements.
- OKX Card: UAB Monavate issues the EEA card; OKX Europe Limited manages that program. This is not a worldwide issuer assignment for OKX. EEA agreement.
- MetaMask Card: Crypto Life provides the card service. The help center names Monavate as issuer, but the US launch specifically names Cross River Bank and describes Baanx, now Monavate, as infrastructure. The US card should not simply be grouped under a Monavate issuer label. FAQ, US launch.
- Tangem Pay: Rain issues the Visa card program, while Paera LLC provides the service. Tangem AG supplies the separate hardware wallet and does not operate Tangem Pay. Provider disclosures.
- Plasma One: Rain issues the card; Bridge powers the global account services. These are different responsibilities within the same product. Account and card disclosures.
- Ether.fi Cash: The terms name Third National as the Visa card issuer. Ether.fi provides the app and protocol services; the issuer's role is separate from those services. Terms of use.
- Bybit Card: The regional cardholder terms name Harmoniie SAS in France for the EEA card and Moorwand Ltd for the UK arrangement. Other regional Bybit programs need their own issuer check. Regional terms.
- RedotPay: Xfers Pte Ltd issues the Singapore card, with StraitsX as the disclosed BIN sponsor. Reap is also a disclosed infrastructure partner, but that partnership alone does not identify the issuer of every RedotPay card. Singapore disclosure, StraitsX arrangement, Reap partnership.
- KAST: The non-US agreement names Third National as issuer and Troia Corp as the KAST contracting party. BANEX MICROFINANCE BANK LIMITED markets the card in Nigeria and handles local compliance duties; that is not the same role as the issuer. Non-US agreement.
The repeated names show the overlap: Gnosis Pay, Krak and OKX share Monavate issuing entities in the regions above; Ether.fi Cash and the listed KAST program name Third National. Tangem Pay and Plasma One both disclose Rain. None of these groupings makes the products' custody arrangements, contracts or failure risks identical.
Losing card access is different from losing access to funds
Solflare's July interruption left the assets in users' wallets rather than trapped in a balance held by Kulipa. That protected access to those assets during this incident; it did not keep the card working or prevent a subscription payment from failing. It also does not establish that every self-custodial card has the same protections or that wallets and smart contracts carry no risk.
With a prefunded card, the separate question is who holds the balance and what happens to it when the card program ends. A card balance is not automatically a bank deposit, and safeguarding arrangements are not the same as deposit insurance. Withdrawal routes, outstanding transactions and refund handling matter alongside the identity of the issuer.
Before treating another card as a backup, compare the legal issuer and the disclosed infrastructure providers for the relevant region. Establish where its balance sits, whether funds can be withdrawn without using the card, and who handles refunds after closure. Keep the cardholder agreement and support details somewhere accessible outside the app. A card that has not been activated and tested is also a poor substitute at a checkout.
Different issuers can still share a processor, card network or funding route, so changing issuer alone is not a guarantee of independence. The aim is to avoid relying on the same failure point for both cards, and to retain another usable way to pay if that point fails. More card brands do not necessarily mean more independent payment routes.
Sources: Solflare's July card interruption, Krak cardholder agreements, US Krak card arrangements, and OKX EEA cardholder agreement.
Related cards
Krak Card
→Mastercard from Kraken with no Kraken fees on spending, FX or ATMs and up to 2% cashback set by your average balance; requires KYC.
OKX Card
→OKX Card is a virtual debit card for European residents, denominated in EUR, with Apple Pay, 0% monthly fee, low crypto-to-EUR conversion cost, and KYC required.