How crypto deposits actually work

The most common question on our waitlist form is some version of "so how does the crypto turn into money on the card?" It is a fair question, and most products answer it with a diagram of arrows. This post is the version without the arrows.

We will follow one deposit from start to finish: 200 USDC on Base, sent from a wallet you already own, ending as a balance you can spend at a checkout.

Step 1: pick an asset and a chain

In the Fundly web app you choose what you are sending and where from. At launch we accept USDT, USDC, ETH, BTC, SOL, BNB, TRX and DAI across Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Solana, Tron, Bitcoin and Lightning. Not every asset lives on every chain, so the dashboard only shows combinations that exist.

This choice matters more than it looks. The same 200 USDC costs a few cents to send on Base and can cost several dollars on Ethereum mainnet. We show an estimated network fee for each option so you can pick before you commit. More on chain choice in a later post.

Step 2: get your deposit address

Every Fundly user has a unique deposit address per chain. It is yours for the life of the account, so you can save it in your wallet and reuse it. Do not reuse it across chains though: your Base address and your Tron address are different, and sending to the wrong one is the single most common way people lose funds in this industry.

Your dashboard shows the address, a QR code, and three things in plain text:

• the minimum deposit for that asset
• the number of confirmations we wait for
• the fee and the rate you will get if you send now

Step 3: send from your wallet

You send from whatever wallet you use. MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom, a hardware wallet, an exchange withdrawal, it does not matter. We do not ask you to connect a wallet or sign anything. A deposit is just a transfer to an address.

As soon as the transaction is broadcast, your dashboard picks it up and shows it as pending with a live confirmation count. You do not need to tell us it is coming.

Step 4: confirmations

We credit your balance once the transaction has enough confirmations that a reversal is practically impossible. The number depends on the chain, because chains finalise at different speeds.

These are targets, not promises. Networks get congested and we would rather credit you late than credit you and take it back.

Step 5: conversion

This is the part people care about most. Fundly accounts hold an account currency, EUR or USD depending on your country. Crypto that arrives gets converted into that currency at the moment it is credited.

The rate comes from a published reference source and we do not add a spread to it. What we charge is a separate, visible deposit fee: 1 percent with a 1 EUR minimum on the Free plan at launch, 0.5 percent on Plus and 0 percent on Premium. So for our 200 USDC example on the Free plan:

• Reference rate: shown in the dashboard at the time, say 0.92 EUR per USDC
• Gross: 184.00 EUR
• Deposit fee at 1 percent: 1.84 EUR
• Credited: 182.16 EUR

You see these exact lines before you send, and again in the transaction record afterwards. If the rate moves between when you look and when the deposit confirms, the rate at confirmation applies, and the record shows which one that was.

Step 6: spend

Once the balance is credited, your card can use it. There is no second step to "load" the card. The card is a way to spend your balance, not a separate pot of money. A payment at a shop in your account currency costs nothing extra. A payment in another currency has an FX fee, which we will cover in its own post.

What happens if you send the wrong thing

Three cases, honestly.

Wrong chain, supported asset. For example USDC sent on Optimism, which we do not support at launch. If the address format matches an EVM chain we support, the funds are usually recoverable, but it is a manual process, it takes days, and we charge a recovery fee to cover the work. Check the chain before you send.

Unsupported asset on a supported chain. For example a random token airdropped to your Ethereum address. We do not credit it and in most cases cannot return it. Please only send assets from the list in the web app.

Below the minimum. Deposits below the minimum for that asset are not credited. The minimum exists because crediting 0.30 USDC costs more in network fees than it is worth. The dashboard shows the minimum next to the address.

The rule of thumb: if the web app did not show you that combination of asset and chain, do not send it.

What we do not do

We do not hold your crypto as crypto. Once it is credited it is converted, and the converted balance sits with our regulated account partner. We do not lend it, stake it or use it. We do not run an order book and we are not an exchange. If you want to hold ETH and hope it goes up, keep it in your wallet and deposit when you need to spend.

We also do not require you to keep a balance. Some people deposit exactly what they need for a purchase, spend it, and deposit again next week. That works fine.

A note on the Instant card

If you signed up on the Instant card, deposits count against your monthly load limit, which at launch is expected to sit somewhere between 1,000 and 2,500 EUR equivalent depending on the issuing partner's rules. Limits apply and your dashboard shows how much room you have left before each deposit. Verifying your identity raises the limit.

That is the whole pipeline. Wallet, address, confirmations, rate, fee, balance, card. If it looks simple, that is because we spent a long time removing the parts that were not.

Want to try it when it opens? Join the waitlist at /join.