A well-built self-custody card attached to a card programme with a published end date

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

The Zeal card is a Visa you load from your own crypto wallet, in euros, dollars or pounds, and spend like any other card. On the mechanics it is one of the tidier examples of the category: no extra currency-conversion fee on Zeal’s side, Apple Pay on the virtual card, cashback paid in GNO if you hold GNO in the right place. What pulls the whole assessment down is not the product but the ground under it. Gnosis Pay, the programme that runs the cards behind Zeal, has announced it is closing its consumer card and web app at 23:59 UTC on 2026-12-20 and moving to business customers. That is a scheduled end date, so this review is being written about a card with a shelf life you can measure in weeks.

The conditions described here are current as of October 28, 2026.

Verdict: 6.1 / 10, and the score hides why

I scored this card 6.1 out of 10. The number sits in an awkward place — high enough to say the card does its job, low enough that I would not open it as a new customer today. Split into the five things that actually decide whether a card is usable, the picture is sharper than the total.

Who this suits: you already keep money in a self-custody wallet, you spend in euro, dollar or pound stablecoins, you are comfortable moving funds yourself, and you can decide within two months what to do with the balance rather than relying on the company to decide for you. Who it does not suit: anyone whose card is their primary way to pay and who needs the account to still be alive in a year; anyone who wants a clean published fee schedule; anyone who plans around the 4% cashback, which has already ended.

Who will give you the card

Zeal says you can spend in more than 150 countries. Issuance is the narrower question: Zeal’s own words are that it “depends on eligibility and regional availability”. The card programme is live in the EU, the UK, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Zeal’s update notes also mention Mexico, Colombia and Bolivia.

Nothing in that list is about citizenship as such, which is the thing people most often ask about. What I could not establish from Zeal’s own pages is a citizenship rule, and I am not going to guess at one. Third-party card directories, none of which Zeal controls, paint a more detailed picture that should be read as unofficial: the EEA and UK appear as requirements, the order screen reportedly shows the EU, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway, and the card is described as unavailable in the US and much of Asia-Pacific. One directory counts 36 countries available and 21 restricted, naming Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico for Latin America; another lists Bolivia as both supported and coming soon, which tells you how much precision those pages have. None of this is confirmed by the card. If your country is not obviously on the list, the only reliable test is the order screen in the app.

How to get it

The path is ordinary: install the app, sign in, complete onboarding, and the card appears. The detail worth knowing is who actually does the checking. Zeal’s own site does not state its KYC requirements. It points to Gnosis Pay, whose onboarding includes KYC after you sign in with Ethereum, with verification handled by Sumsub. Neither Zeal nor Gnosis Pay publishes which KYC tiers apply, how long processing takes, or which reasons get an application rejected — all not stated.

What third parties report, and Zeal has not confirmed: full identity and address verification, age 18 or over, a government ID or passport plus proof of address issued within the previous three months, verified through Sumsub. The same source is careful to add that uploading documents does not guarantee approval. Levels and timing are still not stated anywhere I could read.

The card itself: Zeal says it issues a Visa debit card through Monavate Limited together with Gnosis Pay Co Ltd, offered as a virtual card and a physical one. The virtual card is for online use and can be added to Apple Pay. Accounts exist in EUR, USD and GBP. Whether a physical card is actually available to you, where it ships, how long it takes and what it costs — not stated on the pages I read. Unofficially, physical shipping is free and delivery time is not given; an older Gnosis Pay fee page mentioned delivery within 10 days of shipping verification, on a page whose date I could not establish. That older page also listed a card purchase fee of EUR 30.23 including shipping, which does not match the free-order picture third parties now give for Zeal. Treat both as history, not as your quote.

Activation is not something I found described. Not stated, on Zeal or the app listing.

Fees: what it really costs

The honest answer is that Zeal publishes no fee schedule at all — nothing on zeal.app, nothing in the App Store listing. So a reader asking “what does this cost” is, right now, dependent on third-party sites. I would rather show you that clearly than dress it up.

What Zeal does state, and this is the part that matters most day to day: Zeal charges no additional foreign-exchange fee. Conversion happens at Visa’s wholesale rate. Gnosis Pay’s own fees can still apply on top — the ATM fee is the obvious one.

Everything else below is unofficial, from card directories in August and September 2026, and not confirmed by the card. Cross-check it in the app before you rely on it.

Now the part people actually want: what happens when you buy something. Three everyday payments, and which fees apply.

Coffee in a euro country. You tap, the amount converts at Visa’s wholesale rate, Zeal adds nothing. No fee for you beyond whatever your own wallet cost you to get the stablecoin there.

A subscription billed in dollars while your balance is in euros. Same conversion rate, same zero Zeal FX fee. What you should actually watch is not the percentage but the spread between the rate you got and the rate you would have got, plus any gas you spent moving funds in beforehand — that cost is real, it is just not a Zeal fee.

Withdrawing cash at an ATM. This is the one with a number attached: officially, ATM withdrawals are possible subject to Gnosis Pay fees, with the amount and allowance not stated. Unofficially, the first five withdrawals or 200 units in a month are free, then 2% per withdrawal, capped at 250 per withdrawal and 500 per day. If cash is a regular part of your life, that 2% is the line in this table worth reading twice.

One more thing that is not a fee but behaves like one: cashback runs up to 4% depending on the GNO held in the card Safe, and Zeal notes the rate can change. The App Store also advertised up to 5% variable APY on EUR and USD balances. There is one product, no paid tiers, so there is nothing to upgrade to.

How to top it up

Zeal spends from balances held in what it calls the card Safe — EUR, USD or GBP stablecoin accounts, on Gnosis Chain and Celo according to the Gnosis Pay docs. The exact coins you can use for Zeal are not stated. That is a smaller gap than it sounds, because the accounts are stablecoin-denominated, but it is a gap: if you hold a particular token and want to know whether it can be loaded directly, the answer is not published, and you find out at the point of transfer.

Bank transfers are named: EUR transfers are processed by Monavate ehf, other transfers by Unblock LT UAB. Their fees are not stated, and neither are the network fees for a crypto top-up. Top-up fee and minimum: not stated.

Unofficially, the card accounts hold EURe, GBPe and USDCe; a SEPA top-up arrives in 1–2 business days; conversion, off-ramp and gas are quoted at 0%, with the caveat that bridging over Ethereum still needs gas. That last caveat is the one to sit with, because it is the ordinary rule of the category rather than a Zeal promise: on-chain network fees are charged by the blockchain, not by the card company.

Withdrawal is the strongest part of the design. This is self-custodial: funds stay in your own wallet or Safe. Earn balances in USD or EUR can be withdrawn 24/7 with no lockups. What happens to a balance sitting on the card when the card closes — whether it can be withdrawn, and what it costs — Zeal does not state, and given the shutdown announcement that is the question I would ask first if I were holding funds.

Paying with it every day

Apple Pay works, on the virtual card, via the App Store listing. Google Pay: not stated by Zeal, reported as supported by a third party, which adds that Google Pay is not subject to the physical-card contactless limit. Blocked merchant categories: not stated anywhere I could find, and for a crypto card that is a real unknown rather than a detail.

The app itself: iPhone on iOS 16.2 or later, Mac with M1 or later, Vision Pro. App Store rating in the UK 4.5 out of 5 from 17 ratings when I read it, version 0.33.3 dated 1 September. The Google Play rating I did not read, so I will not guess at it.

Disputes are the soft spot in everyday use. Nothing is stated on zeal.app or in the App Store listing about how disputes are handled. Zeal did reply on Trustpilot that card disputes take time. A third party reports dispute handling as not stated. For a card that spends from a balance you control, a slow dispute path matters — if a charge is fraudulent, the money has already left your Safe, and the recovery route is the issuer’s, on their timetable.

What can go wrong

Start with the biggest thing, because it is not really a risk, it is a scheduled event. Gnosis Pay announced it will close its consumer card and web app at 23:59 UTC on 2026-12-20 and move to B2B. Cardholders were notified on 2026-09-21, with other outlets carrying it on 2026-09-25. Users are to move to partner apps for replacement cards, with MiniPay named. Safe funds stay accessible and the web app stays in a limited form for withdrawals. Separately, GNO cashback eligibility ends 2026-09-30. One secondary report says Zeal has not confirmed its own future plans; I could not find a Zeal statement either way.

Then the technical one. On 2026-06-01 an ERC-1271 module exploit affected Card Safes, per a third-party report. That is the sort of event that hits a self-custody arrangement precisely where you would expect it: the wallet holds the funds, and the module that let you spend from them was the attack surface.

Then the everyday friction. Trustpilot for zeal.app reads 3.5 out of 5 from 17 reviews (the page also shows 3.7), with a January 2026 one-star report about support requests going unanswered for weeks, which Zeal apologised for publicly, and a 2026 review about a scam transaction and slow dispute handling. App Store reviews mention problems transferring from balance to card and slow support. These are individual reports and unverified, and no official incident was found — but the issuer’s own Trustpilot score is 2.3 out of 5 from 38 reviews, with 58% one-star and complaints about slow or unanswered tickets. The support channel is thin: Zeal lists Discord and X, with no email address, no chat and no stated hours. The site runs in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian — Russian is not offered.

The upside of self-custody, stated honestly: no bank or company can freeze or seize your funds, and Zeal is self-custodial software, not a regulated institution. The app developer is grwth lbs ltd. The cards are managed by Gnosis Pay Co Ltd (UK no. 14919639) and issued by Monavate Limited, an FCA-authorised e-money institution under a Visa Europe licence. The card side is properly licensed; the software side is not, and it does not need to be.

The other side of the same coin: if you lose the key, nobody can recover it. Zeal says lost funds are likely unrecoverable. The app has biometric passkey authentication, real-time transaction alerts, freeze-the-card-in-app, an audited wallet with a published security policy, Safety Checks and transaction previews. Deposits are not insured and Zeal’s own words are “Your principal is at risk”.

One general point that applies to any card like this, and to this one especially: blockchain transfers are irreversible, so a deposit sent on a network the provider does not support, or to an address belonging to another network, can be lost or need manual recovery with no guarantee. And because the merchant can look up the BIN and see which institution and country issued the card, a card issued in one country can read as foreign to a shop in another — which is a routine reason for declines, not a sign anything is wrong.

What to take instead

I am not going to pretend the comparison is clean. Every card here is live, none is perfectly safe, and the ones with the clearest costs are the ones whose issuers could change terms at any time.

Read that table for what it says rather than for a ranking. MetaMask scores highest of the four, and its cost structure is the clearest — free virtual card, no annual fee, a metal card at $199/year, a stated per-transaction fee with no MetaMask markup and no foreign-exchange fee — but its availability is narrow in a different way, since sign-up is open in 45 listed countries and territories with a waitlist elsewhere, and US and UK sign-ups are temporarily closed. It spends directly from a connected wallet across Linea, Base, Monad and Solana, and names mUSD, wETH, EURe, GBPe, USDC and USDT among its tokens. Its cashback is smaller: 1% on the virtual card, 3% headline on the metal card with a footnote capping 3% at the first $10,000 spent and 1% after that.

KAST matches Zeal’s total and has the most elaborate tier structure of the four, from a free Standard tier to $1,000 and $10,000 annual memberships, and the widest range of fees stated openly — a 0.5%–1.75% foreign-exchange fee depending on where you live, a $0.10 fee on non-USD transactions under $25, $0.50 for a declined transaction. If you want to see a full price list before you sign up anything, KAST is the one that provides one. Its availability rules are also the strictest, checking not just where you live but what your ID says.

TokenPocket is the cheapest-looking and the one I would read most carefully: the 1% deposit fee is described as refunded later through rewards or reduced transaction fees, which is not the same as never paying it. Its regional split — Visa for parts of Europe, Mastercard across Asia-Pacific — means the card you get depends on where you are.

None of these solves the problem that made me score Zeal’s reliability section 2 out of 10. Every card in this category sits on an issuer that can change, be licensed away, or close. Visa terminated its global agreements with FTX on 13 November 2022 and the FTX US debit card was wound down; WaveCrest, a Visa issuer that supplied several crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018 and all its Visa programmes closed. That is the pattern to hold in mind when reading any promise about the next five years from any of these cards.

Who I would recommend it to

If you already run a self-custody wallet, hold euro, dollar or pound stablecoins, and want a card that spends straight from them without an exchange in the middle, Zeal is a genuinely pleasant piece of software with an honest cost story on the currency-conversion side. I would use it, with the closing date in the front of my mind and a plan to move.

I would not recommend it as a primary card to anyone. A programme that stops on 2026-12-20 is not a foundation to build everyday spending on, and the cashback that made the card interesting has already ended. Nor would I recommend it to anyone who wants a published fee list, a support team with a phone number, or a dispute process described in advance rather than recalled afterwards.

Before you commit anything, check three things in this order: whether your country appears on the order screen, what happens to a balance sitting on the card when the programme closes, and whether the coins you hold are among those the card Safe actually accepts. The first is a two-minute test. The second and third are the ones to raise with support before you load funds.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Zeal card?

Zeal is a self-custodial crypto wallet app that also gives you a Visa debit card spending directly from stablecoin balances held in your own Safe accounts, in EUR, USD or GBP. Zeal is software, not a bank: the app developer is grwth lbs ltd, the card programme is run by Gnosis Pay Co Ltd, and the card is issued by Monavate Limited, an FCA-authorised e-money institution under a Visa Europe licence. No custodian holds your funds.

How does the Zeal card work?

You convert or top up a stablecoin balance in your card Safe, on Gnosis Chain or Celo, and the card spends that balance at the Visa mid-market rate. Because it behaves like a prepaid card drawing on a stored balance rather than a bank debit card, it cannot overdraw, and payment is made from crypto you already hold. Zeal adds no additional foreign-exchange fee; Gnosis Pay’s own fees, such as on ATM withdrawals, can still apply.

Is Zeal a bank, and who owns it?

No. Zeal is a self-custodial software wallet and is not regulated as a financial institution. The card side is separate and properly licensed: Gnosis Pay Co Ltd (UK no. 14919639) manages the card programme, and Monavate Limited issues it under a Visa Europe licence as an FCA-authorised e-money institution. The app is developed by grwth lbs ltd.

Can I use the Zeal card in my country?

Spending works in more than 150 countries, but issuance depends on eligibility and regional availability, and that is the part to test. The programme is live in the EU, UK, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Zeal does not publish a citizenship rule. Third-party directories list further detail as unofficial, including EEA and UK requirements and availability in 36 countries.

Is the Zeal card safe?

It is safe in the specific and real sense that it is self-custodial: no bank or company can freeze or seize your funds, and if you lose your keys the loss is yours rather than a bank’s problem — which is also the risk. Zeal says lost funds are likely unrecoverable, deposits are not insured, and “Your principal is at risk”. The app offers passkey authentication, real-time alerts, instant card freeze and an audited wallet. Consider also the 2026-06-01 ERC-1271 module exploit that affected Card Safes.

How much does the Zeal card cost?

Zeal publishes no fee schedule — nothing on its site or its App Store listing — which is the main weakness here. What is stated: no additional foreign-exchange fee, with conversion at Visa’s wholesale rate. Unofficially, third-party sites report the card and shipping free, no monthly or annual fee, replacement at 4.99, and the first five ATM withdrawals or 200 units per month free, then 2% per withdrawal. An older Gnosis Pay page showed different figures.

How do I top up the Zeal card?

You load balances into the card Safe — EUR, USD or GBP stablecoin accounts on Gnosis Chain or Celo — and the card spends those. The specific coins accepted for Zeal are not stated, which matters if you hold a particular token. EUR bank transfers are processed by Monerimo ehf and other transfers by Unblock LT UAB; third parties report a SEPA top-up arriving in 1–2 business days. Top-up fees, minimums and crypto network fees are not stated.

Is the Zeal card being shut down?

The card programme is. Gnosis Pay announced it will close its consumer card and web app at 23:59 UTC on 2026-12-20 and move to business customers, with cardholders notified on 2026-09-21 and directed to partner apps such as MiniPay. Safe funds stay accessible and the web app remains in limited form for withdrawals. GNO cashback eligibility ended 2026-09-30. Zeal’s own statement on its future plans was not found.

Does the Zeal card have cashback, and is it worth it?

Cashback runs up to 4% depending on the GNO held in the card Safe and is paid in GNO on Gnosis Chain, with the rate subject to change. GNO cashback eligibility ended 2026-09-30, so the headline figure is no longer live. The App Store also advertised up to 5% variable APY on EUR and USD balances, which is a different thing. Zeal has one card product with no paid tiers.

How do I withdraw money from Zeal, and what happens to my balance?

Earn balances in USD or EUR withdraw 24/7 with no lockups, and because Zeal is self-custodial the funds themselves stay in your own wallet or Safe. What Zeal does not state is the process and fees for withdrawing the card balance, or what happens to a balance left on the card when it closes — which is the first question to put to support if you are holding funds on it.

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