Why we built a card before a bank

People ask us why the first thing Fundly ships is a card. Not an account, not a savings product, not a wallet with a token. A card.

The short answer is that a card is the fastest way to turn crypto into something you can actually use today, and the people we are building for cannot wait for the long answer. Here is the long answer anyway.

The problem we kept running into

Three of us on the founding team have lived outside the country on our passport for most of our adult lives. Between us we have been rejected by neobanks in four EU countries for not having a residence permit, had a home bank freeze an incoming transfer because the reference line said "USDC", and paid 6 percent to get a client's stablecoin payment into a form a landlord would accept.

None of this is exotic. Ask any freelancer in Lagos, Buenos Aires or Karachi how they get paid by a client in Berlin. Ask a nomad in Lisbon how they opened their first account there. The stories are the same. Money arrives fine. Spending it is the hard part.

The money already exists. It is sitting on a chain somewhere. The gap is between that balance and a checkout.

Why a card closes that gap fastest

A card is accepted at tens of millions of merchants and in more than 150 countries. That network already exists, and we do not need to build it or convince anyone to join it. The moment a Fundly card is in your phone, every shop, airline and subscription service that takes Visa or Mastercard is open to you.

An IBAN account is more powerful in some ways. You can receive salary, pay rent by transfer, set up standing orders. We are building it. But an IBAN account requires full identity verification by law, and verification takes time, documents and, in some countries, a proof of address that people simply do not have. It would have been the wrong front door.

So the order is: card first, account second, and you decide when to step from one to the other.

What "card first" looks like in practice

At launch the flow is short on purpose.

1. Sign up with an email address and a phone number. We run a country check and sanctions screening in the background.
2. Pick an asset and a chain, send crypto to your deposit address. We support Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Solana, Tron, Bitcoin and Lightning at launch.
3. Your balance is credited at a published rate with the fee shown before you confirm.
4. A virtual card appears in your Fundly dashboard. Add it to Apple Pay or Google Pay and go buy lunch.

Fundly launches as a web app. You sign up, deposit and manage your card from the browser on any device. Native iOS and Android apps are coming later, and we will say so here when they are ready.

That is the Instant card. It has monthly and per-transaction limits set by our issuing partner and by regulation, because that is what allows us to issue it after a light sign-up. Limits apply, and we will always show you exactly where you are against them.

When you want more, you verify your identity. That unlocks higher limits, a physical card and, when it is ready in your country, an EUR IBAN account.

Things we decided not to build first

Every product is a list of things you said no to. Here is ours.

• An exchange. We do not run an order book. You bring crypto you already have; we convert it at a published rate and let you spend it. If you want to trade, there are better places.
• A token. No token, no points that turn into a token later. We charge fees you can read and that is how we make money.
• Rewards as the headline. Some cards lead with 8 percent cashback and bury a 3 percent FX fee. We would rather lead with the fee schedule.
• A business product. Freelancers, yes. Corporate treasuries, not yet.

What we are not

We are not a bank and we do not hold a banking licence. Cards are issued by a licensed partner. Account and IBAN services are provided by a regulated partner and your funds are safeguarded under the rules that apply to them. We will name these partners on the site before launch, and the fine print will say exactly what each one does.

We say this plainly because the industry has a habit of implying more than it is licensed to do. We would rather be boring and clear.

What comes after the card

The roadmap is public and short.

• Verified tier: full identity verification, higher limits, physical cards shipped to 100 or more countries.
• EUR IBAN account: SEPA and SEPA Instant, in and out, funded by crypto deposits or bank transfer.
• More chains: Optimism and Avalanche as fast follows.
• Card linking: use the IBAN account as the funding source for your card so a client payment in EUR is spendable without a conversion.

Each of these will get its own post when it ships, including what went wrong on the way.

Why we are writing this down

This blog is going to be a working notebook, not a press office. We will publish our fees line by line, explain how conversion rates are set, and tell you when a provider decision forces us to change something. If you have ever tried to read a fintech's fee page and given up, you are the reader we have in mind.

The card is the start. If it sounds like something you have been waiting for, join the waitlist at /join and we will let you know the day it opens in your country.