Karta Card

What Karta is

Karta is an all-in-one payment app that runs inside Telegram. You pair a self-custody wallet with a Visa Signature card issued through regulated partners, fund the balance with stablecoins and spend it online, in store or at ATMs. The company reports more than 20,000 monthly users and positions the product as an alternative to a bank account rather than an addition to one - it states plainly that it is a financial technology company and not a bank, and that deposits are not FDIC insured.

Self-custody with a card attached

The wallet is the account. Funds sit in a wallet you control until they are moved to the card balance, and Karta says only you control it. Card security covers 3D Secure, encrypted transactions and PIN protection. Because the app lives in Telegram, onboarding is a bot conversation: open the app, verify in about five minutes, top up, and the virtual card activates.

Funding and moving money

Stablecoin top-ups are free on Polygon, Base, Optimism, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Solana and Ethereum, with TRC-20 charged at 5.90 USDT. Bank rails are switched on as well - ACH, SEPA, SWIFT, domestic wire, PIX, SPEI and Colombian bank transfer - each with its own loading fee. Sending funds out to external wallets costs a network fee plus 0.1% of the amount, and conversions use mid-market rates.

What it costs to spend

This is the card's weak point. Every card payment carries a 1.5% fee, ATM withdrawals cost 1 USDT plus 2.5%, and Visa adds another 1% whenever the currency is not USD. There is no cashback, so a purchase in a foreign currency costs roughly 2.5% on top of the mid-market rate. The cheap parts are getting money in and the low $5 virtual card, which makes Karta strongest for funding and moving balances rather than for daily spending.

Karta lives inside Telegram and issues a Visa Signature card against self-custodied stablecoins with free top-ups. MaxSwap is the other Telegram-native card here, issuing a virtual Mastercard from a bot in minutes, and Karma covers the same ground in a standalone app. See the crypto cards listing.

Cards

• Visa Signature virtual card issued for 5 USDT, discounted from the standard 30 USDT, with reissuance at 15 USDT.
• Physical plastic card from 99 USDT and a metal card at 299 USDT.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay support, plus ATM cash access in over 200 countries.
• 3D Secure, PIN protection and encrypted transactions.

Wallet and funding

• Self-custody wallet with stablecoin top-ups free on Polygon, Base, Optimism, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Solana and Ethereum.
• Bank funding through ACH, SWIFT, domestic wire, SEPA, PIX, SPEI and Colombian bank transfer.
• Send to external crypto wallets across a long list of networks including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, Plasma, TON, zkSync Era, Linea and Base.

Extras

• Karta AI for in-app insights, transaction automation and support.
• Referral programme that pays a share of referred friends' spending through a KARAT points balance worth 0.01 USDT per point.
• Verification in around five minutes, with no bank account required.

What funds the card

USDT and USDC are the funding assets, accepted on Tron (TRC-20), Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and Solana. Seven of those networks carry no top-up fee, and TRC-20 is the only one charged, at 5.90 USDT. Stablecoin funding means the balance is predictable between top-up and spend.

What it converts to

The card spends in USD and EUR, with Visa's 1% international transaction fee applying to anything outside USD. Conversions in the app are executed at mid-market rates rather than a marked-up spread, which offsets some of the spending fee but does not remove it.

Wallet networks

Outgoing transfers support a wide set of chains, including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BNB Smart Chain, Celo, Gnosis, Kaia, Linea, Mantle, Optimism, opBNB, Plasma, Polygon, Starknet, TON, Unichain and zkSync Era. Network fees are lowest - 0.90 USDT - on that larger group, with Ethereum and Tron the most expensive at 4.90 USDT.

Getting the card

• Virtual card: 5 USDT (standard price 30 USDT)
• Virtual card reissuance: 15 USDT
• Plastic card: 99 USDT
• Metal card: 299 USDT

Spending and cash

• Card payment fee: 1.5% of every transaction
• ATM withdrawal: 1 USDT plus 2.5% when successful
• ATM withdrawal declined: 1 USDT
• Visa international transaction fee: an additional 1% on any payment or withdrawal in a currency other than USD

Top-ups

• Stablecoin top-ups free on Polygon, Base, Optimism, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Solana and Ethereum
• TRC-20 top-ups: 5.90 USDT
• ACH: 0.30% plus 2.50 USDT
• SEPA: 1.00% plus 2.00 USDT
• PIX and Colombian bank transfer: 1.00% plus 0.50 USDT
• SPEI: 1.00%
• SWIFT: 0.30% plus 37.50 USDT
• Domestic wire: 0.30% plus 30.00 USDT

Sending funds out

• Network fee: 0.90 USDT on most supported chains, 2.90 USDT on Solana, 4.90 USDT on Ethereum and Tron
• Service fee: 0.1% of the withdrawal amount
• Conversions use mid-market exchange rates

What that means in practice

Spending $1,000 in USD costs $15 in fees, and doing it in euros adds Visa's 1% on top. Topping up $1,000 with stablecoins is free, which is the real strength: Karta is built for cheap funding and cheap wallet activity, with an expensive spending layer attached.