Doing crypto card business, choosing the wrong partner could ruin the company

For Web3 entrepreneurs, the choice of BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) partners is no longer just a business decision but a matter of life and death.

Author: Pavel Matveev

Translation: Deep潮 TechFlow

Deep潮 Guide:

Recently, Europe’s crypto card issuance sector has faced a severe regulatory storm. The Polish card issuer Quicko had its license revoked, and the Lithuanian regulator issued a ban against Monavate, causing many crypto projects and users’ funds and payment functions to be instantly paralyzed.

Wirex CEO Pavel Matveev reflects on this, pointing out that many card issuers pursuing growth at the expense of compliance are facing survival crises.

For Web3 entrepreneurs, the choice of BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) partners is no longer just a business issue but a matter of life and death.

Full Text:

If you are building a fintech product that relies on card issuance or banking infrastructure, the following content may keep you awake all night.

What happened

Last week, the popular Polish card issuer Quicko lost its operating license in the crypto card program. The consequences were immediate and brutal: dozens of partners and thousands of end users suddenly lost access to banking and card functions overnight.

No warning, no transition period—services disappeared directly.

A few weeks earlier, the Lithuanian regulator, Lietuvos bankas, issued a legally binding directive to UAB Monavate, which is also a preferred issuer for crypto-related card programs. The regulator ordered them to cease providing financial services to six partners: KPTRS Investments Limited, Amnis Europe AG, ConnexPay Ireland Limited, Brighty Digital UAB, Kulipa SAS, and Immersve UK Ltd.

You can read the full announcement here:

https://www.lb.lt/en/news/lietuvos-bankas-imposes-temporary-restrictions-on-uab-monavate

The Unspoken Model

Here is the real situation: regulators across Europe are tightening control over Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), especially those serving the crypto sector.

Issuers that have achieved rapid growth by saying “Yes” to everyone are now discovering that compliance is not a checkbox but a continuous operational discipline requiring real investment, genuine expertise, and a true corporate culture.

Many such issuers’ business models are built on scale: onboarding as many projects as possible, asking minimal questions, and charging fees.

This model is collapsing in real time.

Why this is especially important for entrepreneurs

If you are a founder or product leader building any product involving cards, payments, or banking infrastructure, your choice of BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) partners is a matter of life and death.

Not just important, but a matter of survival.

When your issuer loses its license:

• Your cards will stop working
• Your users will be unable to withdraw funds
• Your business will come to a halt
• Your reputation will suffer a devastating blow, possibly forever unrecoverable

Here’s an unsettling fact: many issuers from Puerto Rico or other popular offshore jurisdictions, operating under the banners of “crypto card programs” or “global card issuance,” lack the compliance infrastructure capable of withstanding strict regulatory scrutiny.

They have licenses but no compliance culture.

The Reality of Due Diligence

Before committing to any BaaS or card issuance partner, ask yourself these questions:

Regulatory Track Record: How long have they held their licenses? Have they ever received regulatory warnings, fines, or restrictions? What is their relationship with their home country regulators?

Compliance Infrastructure: How large is their compliance team? Is it a cost-cutting measure they try to minimize, or a strategic function they heavily invest in? Do they have dedicated financial crime, AML, and risk teams, or is it handled by one person wearing five hats?

Client Portfolio: Who are their other partners? If their entire client base consists of high-risk crypto projects, such over-concentration could pose systemic risks to everyone on the platform.

Operational Resilience: What happens if they lose a banking partner? Do they have backup plans? Have they stress-tested their infrastructure?

Culture: This is the hardest to evaluate but also the most important. Is compliance just a talking point in their sales meetings, or has it been deeply integrated into every aspect of their operations?

Wirex’s Perspective

I write this not as a neutral observer but as someone who has been deeply involved in this field since 2014.

Wirex invented the crypto debit card. We have issued millions of cards linked to stablecoins. We have experienced multiple market cycles, regulatory shifts, and industry upheavals—we have survived not by luck but by embedding compliance and risk management into our very foundation.

Last year, we received two awards that I am very proud of:

• 2025 Compliance Culture Initiative of the Year
• 2025 Risk Management Team of the Year

These are not vanity metrics. They reflect our decade-long commitment—staying the course and doing the right thing, even when it’s slower, more expensive, or when competitors run faster by ignoring rules.

The crypto card sector is undergoing a painful but necessary correction.

Issuers that view compliance as an afterthought are being phased out. Projects that choose partners solely based on speed and price are learning costly lessons.

In the end, a stronger ecosystem will emerge: fewer players, higher standards, and more sustainable business models.

If you are building for the long term, choose partners with the same long-term vision.

This article reflects only my personal views as Wirex CEO.